Long Reign the Ghost King
by Light-Eco-Sage
Summary: Clockwork had always known that Danny's life could take one of three paths. The first two are now forever out of reach, but the third path might be the most difficult to walk of all. Danny might be the new Ghost King, and in the background Vlad continues to plot... No Phantom Planet. Danny/Sam pairing.
1. In Medias Res

**Long Reign The Ghost King**

 **Rating: Teen, for some language and hints of sexual content**

 **Summary: Clockwork had always known that the life of Danny Fenton could take one of three paths. Two of those paths are now forevermore out of reach, but is the young halfa ready to face the third?**

 **Pairing: Danny/Sam**

 **LES: As just a quick note, this takes place in a future time, but with no Phantom Planet. Danny's secret is still safe, and he and Sam have started dating.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: In Medias Res**

Danny Phantom was unsure if he had ever been in a stranger situation than the one he found himself in.

It was one thing to be captured, but another thing entirely knowing that he was not being held against his will. He had agreed to this, and a part of him was still wondering why.

He was tied to a column in the middle of a darkened room, lit only by ghostly green fire. The bonds were of a ghostly nature and would hold him in place, for his safety as much as the others in the room. Nearly a dozen ghosts hovered in the shadows of the room, watching him, some of them familiar to him, but many were not. But most of his attention was focused on the two ghosts floating in front of him and not on the on-lookers.

The first was perhaps one of the most feared entities in the entire ghost zone: Thanatos, the ghostly master of death. He truly looked a horrifying figure: an imposing figure draped from head to foot in a flowing pitch black cloak. Danny could barely see the skeletal face underneath the hood. For a brief moment, he considered asking the Reaper if he could remove his cloak and be present in his real form underneath the mask of the Reaper, but Danny knew he couldn't. Without the cloak to protect him, Thanatos could be vulnerable to the ritual that was about to take place. Thanatos held in his skeletal hands the symbol of his power: the Scythe. He held the wicked black blade poised, ready to strike and bring an end to Danny Phantom's existence if it seemed like he would not be able to pass the ritual. A few years ago, Danny would have been terrified of having the knowledge that he was literally less than a foot from no longer existing. But if the ghosts were right, Danny knew that he didn't want to continue if he failed.

The second ghost was one that Danny was very familiar with, but the seriousness of the situation prevented Danny from really speaking with Clockwork. The Master of Time gazed down at Danny Phantom. "Are you sure you wish to go through with this?" He asked.

Danny Phantom took a steadying breath. He wished desperately that Sam, Tucker, and Jazz could be in the room with him, but this was an incredibly important ritual in the Ghost Zone and they could not be permitted inside. Whether he passed or failed, he would have to face the coming trial alone. He reached inward, allowing his consciousness to seek out the humans waiting in the room next door. His mind brushed against theirs and he spoke to them mentally.

" _I love you guys. All of you."_ He projected the thought into their minds.

It took a moment for them to respond. _"You don't have to do this, Danny."_ It was Tucker.

" _I do."_ Danny thought back, focusing on keeping his fear under control. Not only would the fear make his friends worry, but it could have a negative impact on his ability to survive the ritual.

" _Be strong, Danny. I love you."_ It was Sam.

" _I love you too, Sam. Good-bye."_ He had to say it, just in case. And then, before he could change his mind, he completely shut off the mental link, leaving him with just his own thoughts.

He took another deep breath and met Clockwork's eyes. "I'm sure." He answered, keeping his voice steady.

"Remember to believe in yourself." Clockwork whispered to him, repeating the same piece of advice that he'd been telling him since Danny agreed to try this ritual. Believe in yourself. This was a test of character, not strength. Clockwork turned around and picked an ancient artifact up off its waiting pedestal and turned back to Danny. Danny recognized the artifact immediately. It was the Crown of Fire. The Ring of Rage was left on the pedestal for the moment. After all, it was little more than an amplifier for the crown's power. The crown was the true test.

All of the ghosts leaned forward and Clockwork raised the crown up for all to see.

Danny closed his eyes. It was hard to believe that only a week ago his biggest concern had end-of-year testing for his senior year of High School. And now, here he was, about to face a dangerous and potentially fatal ritual. Whether he passed or failed, his life (or after-life) was about to change forever.

Thanatos' bony fingers tightened their grip of his scythe as Clockwork began to lower the Crown of Fire onto Danny's head…

And then everything went black.

* * *

 **LES: The next chapter will be going back in time to see how everything happened.**


	2. The Beginning

**Chapter II: The Beginning**

 **LES: In this chapter, I decided to incorporate some details that Butch Hartman has revealed about the Ghost Zone since the show has ended. This Word of God stuff is just too interesting to not explore in fan fiction form, even if this is not a fan fiction focusing on those things. Hell, the Elsewhereness needs a fan fiction all on its own. So if you are confused by the mentions of the Unworld and the Elsewhereness, go to Butch Hartman's YouTube and watch the video "Danny Phantom Ghost Zone Secrets Revealed!".**

* * *

(One Week Previous)

"Dude, calm down. I'm sure you did fine." Tucker told his friend for about the hundredth time that afternoon. Tucker only needed to look at his friend to know that he was nervous. He had a little habit of becoming fidgety if he was nervous. It was a habit that, even at eighteen years old, he still hadn't lost from being a preteen.

"But what if I..." Danny began, only to be cut off by his girlfriend, Sam.

She punched his shoulder lightly. "Listen, Danny, I'm sure you did fine. It isn't like you haven't had more time to study lately."

"Yeah. Between the two of us and Jazz helping you study, we're pretty sure that you've been able to do well enough to get into any college of your choice." Tucker said.

Danny slowly stopped fidgeting as he realized they were probably right. Things had been pretty quiet on the ghostly front for the past several weeks, giving him much more time to study for his tests. Despite his lack-luster grades, Danny Fenton wasn't stupid. His grades were more of a reflection of his double-life taking time away from studying. With the time to sit down and crack open his books, he knew he did have a real chance of doing well on his end-of-the-year tests.

"Speaking of studying, though..." Tucker began thoughtfully. "You still haven't told us how you've managed to keep the normal flood of spooks away from Amity Park for the past few weeks. What? Did you go into the Ghost Zone and beg to be left alone until after testing was done?"

"I swear I didn't do anything." Danny said, shrugging. "I doubt any of my enemies would be altruistic enough to stay away just because I asked anyway. If they've decided to stay in the Ghost Zone for the past few weeks, that's fine by me."

But, if Danny were honest with himself, he was a little worried about why there had barely been any ghost attacks for the past several weeks. Pretty much the only ghosts that he'd had to deal with were the variety that were barely above sentience. Even the Box Ghost had been absent, and he couldn't remember the last time he'd gone a few days without having to send the Box Ghost back to the Ghost Zone.

Now that tests were finished, he knew that he wouldn't be able to rest until he found out if the denizens of the Ghost Zone were planning some sort of massive invasion. He decided to go into the Ghost Zone that night to check it out. He considered asking Sam and Tucker to go with him, but then he decided against it. Hopefully, he would be able to just sneak in, find out what's going on, and then sneak out without any ghost noticing.

* * *

(That Night)

Danny lay awake in his bed, waiting patiently for an hour when he could be sure that his parents would be asleep. Thankfully, years of fighting ghosts at all hours and his half-ghost nature helped him easily stay awake until nearly three in the morning. The entire house was quiet and Danny had heard his father get up to make his late-night bathroom trip nearly an hour ago. He was pretty sure it was safe.

He slid out of his bed as quietly as he could and transformed into his ghostly form. There were just too many noisy stairs for him to risk walking down to the lab normally. Silent as, well… a ghost, he phased through the floors until he found himself in the basement lab. He hovered over to the lock on the portal, held up his hand, and pulled his ectoplasm out of his hand. Now his hand was basically a normal human hand. He pressed his finger down on the genetic lock, it registered the DNA of a member of the Fenton family, and the portal to the Ghost Zone opened up. Now that the portal was open, he allowed the ectoplasm to flow back into his hand, leaving him in his fully ghost form.

The first hint that something was wrong came to Danny right away. Normally the opened portal would glow brightly with ectoplasm, but now the portal was almost entirely dark. At first, Danny thought that it had been shut down, but then he realized that he couldn't see the back of the machine. It was turned on and the portal was operating, but it wasn't normal.

He considered not going into the Ghost Zone at that time. Something was wrong. The sight of the dim portal sent a shiver down his spine. But his desire to know what was going on overrode his feelings of wrong-ness.

Thankfully, he wasn't dumb enough to dive right in. He decided to just stick his hand in at first. He pressed his hand through the membrane that divided the two worlds, held it there for a moment and then pulled his hand back. Nothing had happened. So he decided to take a look.

Carefully, and with his senses on high alert, he slowly poked his head into the portal. And what he saw when he pushed his head all the way through caused him to gasp in shock, the sound echoing in the silence and the darkness beyond the portal.

Everything, everywhere, was pitch black. Danny felt his panic rise and his first thought was that someone had destroyed the Ghost Zone. But, no… on second thought, that couldn't be right. The human world and the Ghost Zone were both parts of the same dimensional fabric. If one was destroyed, the other would go as well. And, now that he was taking a second look, he thought he could see glowing objects moving slowly through the blackness. Other ghosts, probably.

If it was safe enough for other ghosts to move around…

Danny floated forward until he was in the blackness. He looked around at where he had come from. The Fenton portal continued to glow like a beacon in the darkness. Probably because it was man-made and a part of the human world instead of part of the Ghost Zone. He moved forward cautiously, always making sure to keep the Fenton Portal in sight.

Perhaps he could find one of the ghosts that were near-by and ask what was going on?

"Danny?"

The halfa almost jumped right out of his skin, but then he recognized the voice. And, lucky him, it was the voice of one of his allies. Danny spun around and saw one of his best ghost allies floating out of the darkness.

"Clockwork? Thank god it's you." Danny sighed.

"It's good to see you too, Phantom." Clockwork said. "Perhaps we should continue this conversation back in your house? As you might have guessed, things are a little uneasy with the Ghost Zone as of late."

"No kidding." Danny replied. He retreated back to the portal and Clockwork followed after him. He didn't want to admit it, but he was very glad to have left the darkness behind. "Okay, so what the hell is going on in there?" He asked.

"A very apt choice of words." Clockwork commented. "As you probably saw, the Ghost Zone has become incredibly unstable in the last few weeks. The changes are different everywhere. What happened around the Fenton portal just happens to be one of the worst areas."

"Why? What's wrong?" Danny asked.

"What you saw in there was the Ghost Zone becoming transparent, and allowing you to view into a third dimensional layer: the Unworld." Clockwork explained.

"Unworld?" Danny asked. He'd never heard of that place.

"As you can probably tell, the Unworld is not a pleasant place." Clockwork said. "You can think of it like a ghostly hell. It is a place of horror and fear, where nothing can truly exist. It is one of the reasons why very few scientists have managed to open portals to the Ghost Zone, even after your parent's success. If their calculations are off and they are not able to reach the Ghost Zone, they could end up in the Unworld. Inside, you would not be able to use your ghostly powers, no matter which form you take."

"Really?" Danny asked, shocked. He'd never known that opening portals could be so dangerous. With a shudder, he remembered how he had become half-ghost… being inside an opening portal. What would have happened if he'd been standing in the portal and it had opened up into the Unworld instead of the Ghost Zone?

"You would have died." Clockwork said, simply. "And you would have had no afterlife after your death. You would have been swallowed whole by the Unworld."

"You really didn't have to tell me that." Danny grumbled. "Note to self: stay far away from the Unworld."

"It's fine, for now." Clockwork said. "All you can do is look at the dimension right now. Myself and the others on the Ghost Council are hopeful that we can fix this problem before the dimensions collapse next month."

"Next month?!" Danny gasped, shifting back to human out of shock. And then he remembered that it was past three in the morning and his family was still asleep. He didn't want to risk them waking up to see him talking to a ghost in their lab. "Are you serious? If the Ghost Zone goes, so does the human world!"

"And more than that." Clockwork commented. "The Unworld will collapse as well. Maybe even the Elsewhereness. It's hard to say what will happen to a place when you don't know what or where it is."

Danny stared. Another unfamiliar name, and not just that but even Clockwork didn't know about this place besides the name? "Is that another dimension?" Danny asked.

"Possibly, or it's just somewhere out there in the Infinite Realms." Clockwork said vaguely. "Think of the Elsewhereness as a counterpart to the Unworld, as a sort of heaven, if you will."

"Okay, wow. But, seriously, we can't allow the dimensions to collapse." Danny said.

"We are in agreement." Clockwork said. "We of the Ghost Council know what the problem is, but finding a solution that is acceptable to everyone is a much more difficult problem."

"What happened to cause this?" Danny asked.

"Why do you think that the Ancients locked Pariah Dark inside the Coffin of Forever Sleep instead of killing him outright?" Clockwork asked.

"Because he was too powerful?" Danny guessed.

"No. As you yourself proved, the Ghost King could be overpowered. The seven Ancients working together were more than a match for him, especially after they removed the Ring of Rage from his hand. Even back then, there were single ghosts that could match him in outright combat: Thanatos, for one."

"Thanatos?" Danny pondered over the familiar name, then he remembered Sam's discussions on ancient Greek and Roman mythology. "Isn't that the god of death?"

Clockwork nodded. "It doesn't matter how powerful the mortal or the ghost, if his scythe cuts you, it would mean the end. But we could not kill Pariah Dark for one simple reason: he is the Ghost King. When a new ghost king first puts on the Crown of Fire, their being becomes connected to the very fabric of the Ghost Zone. Quite literally, the realm reflects the ruler. With Pariah Dark's essence linked to the Ghost Zone, the Infinite Realms have become chaotic, it's true, but it was a much better alternative to total collapse that would arise from an unfettered Ghost Zone."

"Something happened to Pariah Dark inside the coffin, right?" Danny asked, starting to get Clockwork's meaning.

"Indeed." Clockwork sighed. "When he was first locked inside, the Ancients made sure to lock him in with the Crown of Fire. Even without the Ring of Rage, it would have been enough to sustain him for eternity. However, when you locked him in there, you just left him with the Ring of Rage, which is near useless on its own. The Ring amplifies the powers of the Crown. Without the Crown, it is little more than a piece of jewelry."

"I..." Danny flinched. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. You didn't know." Clockwork said.

"Why didn't you say something before?" Danny asked. "We could have..."

"Opened the coffin and switched the artifacts?" Clockwork finished. "Not possible. We were left with little choice but to leave him as is and let him fade into Oblivion."

"So… Pariah Dark is gone?" Danny asked.

"As of one month ago." Clockwork said. "Thanatos personally attended him and sent him on his way."

"So… what now?" Danny asked.

"The basic solution is a simple one: find a new Ghost King." Clockwork said. "However, there are limited options… well, one real option, but convincing the rest of the Ghost Council has taken up most of the last month." His staff materialized out of nowhere and the ancient spirit gripped it. "Come with me to my lair, there is something we must discuss."

And then, just like that, Danny and Clockwork were teleported into the Ghost Zone, past the zone of the Unworld and into Clockwork's realm. The Time Castle seemed fine, but the ectoplasm that surrounded the castle seemed to alternate swiftly between boiling and freezing with no pattern.

Clockwork moved over to the view screen. "There are a few qualities that one needs to be the Ghost King. Power is obviously one of them. One needs to have the right mindset. And even those who are worthy can become tainted by power like Pariah Dark. These are the sort of qualities that my fellows on the Council have been looking for. But there is one outlier." One of his many view screens came to life and Danny realized that he was looking into the past.

He saw himself, facing off against Pariah Dark in the Fenton battle armor. "Very well!" The Ghost King growled. "I accept your challenge!" Clockwork put the images on a loop, so the King repeated the words 'I accept your challenge!' over and over.

"The words would mean very little to humans in this modern era, but Pariah Dark is from an older time and was very aware of what he said." Clockwork said. "These were ceremonial words, Danny. To the King, this was more than a challenge to a fight. It was a challenge for the throne."

Danny stared at the screen as Pariah Dark continued to repeat those same words. "Wait… are you serious?" Danny gasped.

"You challenged him, he accepted the challenge, and then you won." Clockwork said.

"But… I only won because of the Fenton Battle armor!" Danny gasped. "It made me a hundred times stronger than I was!"

"And how much stronger have you gotten since you faced Pariah Dark?" Clockwork asked with a grin. Danny frowned. They both knew very well that Danny was currently much stronger than he had been back then with the Fenton Battle armor.

"But Vlad..." Danny almost gagged. "He was the one who locked Pariah away again."

"He did not fight him." Clockwork said. "You were the one who overpowered the Ghost King." Clockwork shut off the view screen. "It is possible for us to find another who could possibly become a good King, but there is also a possibility that the Crown will only recognize the one who defeated Pariah in a formal challenge. It does have a will of its own, in a way."

"So… I don't have a choice, then?" Danny asked.

"Of course you have a choice." Clockwork said. "If you refuse, we shall find an alternative. That does not change the fact that I believe you are the mostly likely choice to be accepted by the Crown of Fire." Clockwork places his hand on Danny's shoulder. "I want you to think about this very hard. Take as much time as you need. I'll have to warn you that both paths you are facing are quite hard, and there is always the chance that the Crown might reject you."

"Well, if the Crown rejects me, then that's it, right?" Danny asked optimistically.

Clockwork shook his head. "I'm afraid that it is not that simple. If the Crown rejects you, it will almost certainly kill you. Or it's power could overwhelm you, in which case Thanatos will have to… euthanize you." Danny didn't respond. "Think about it. You have two weeks at most. Speak my name when you have an answer."

In the space of a blink, Danny found himself back in his room, and realized that time had not passed at all. Clockwork must have frozen it for their talk. It was still just a little past three, but Danny knew that he would not be getting a wink of sleep tonight.


	3. Discussions Part 1

**Chapter III: Discussions Part 1**

* * *

Almost as soon as the sun rose, Danny grabbed his cellphone and dialed his sister's number. After several rings, Jazz answered with a yawn. "Danny? Why are you calling so early?"

"I know it's early, I'm sorry, Jazz. But I really need your advice." Danny said, and quickly explained the state of the Ghost Zone to Jazz.

By the time he had finished explaining about how the Ghost Zone was basically falling apart without a king, it seemed that Jazz had woken up a little bit more. "That's awful, but what does that have to do with you? Shouldn't the Ghost Council handle this?"

"They are. They need to get a new king and Clockwork thinks it should be me!" Danny hissed into the phone. He could hear his parents start to move around, so he lowered his voice as to not make them suspicious.

There was silence on the other end of the line for almost a minute. "I don't mean to sound like I think you can't do it, but why?" Jazz asked.

"Apparently when I challenged Pariah Dark it was a formal challenge for the throne." Danny replied.

Once again, there was a long silence. "Danny, I could probably sit with you on the phone all morning discussing all the ins and outs of what makes a king. But I think it boils down to one question… do you _want_ to be king?"

Danny followed Jazz's example and didn't answer for over a minute, mulling the question around. "I don't know." He answered finally. "I would like to think that I'm a good person and that I'll treat all the ghosts fairly, but me, a king?"

He stopped when Jazz began to laugh on the other end of the line. "That's all I needed to hear. I think you'll be a great king, Danny."

"What?" Danny asked. "But I couldn't answer yes."

"You shouldn't answer yes." Jazz said. "Your hesitation told me that you are fully aware of how serious the position is. Being a king isn't about the power or the privileges. It's about work. Or, at least, that's how it was centuries ago. Modern kings and queens..." She paused. "Aren't the best role models for royal duties. And judging from what you said, the Ghost Zone needs much more than a figurehead."

"So you think I should accept Clockwork's offer?" Danny asked. "Even though the Crown of Fire might kill me?"

"The Crown of Fire kills the unworthy, right?" Jazz asked. "I think you are worthy. How long did Clockwork give you to think it over?"

"Two weeks." Danny said.

"Then you should think about it some more. Talk about it with Sam and Tucker. You should probably also let Mom and Dad in on your secret." Jazz said and Danny's face fell. "Danny, you can't just disappear into the Ghost Zone forever without letting them know the truth."

"I… you're right." Danny sighed.

"Danny, tell them tomorrow. It's the weekend and I don't have any classes on the weekend. I'll drive back to Amity Park and back you up with our parents. I'll see you tonight."

"Jazz, you don't have to do that." Danny said. "Don't you have some important college parties to go to?"

Jazz laughed. "Hardly. And, even if I were inclined to go to parties, my little brother is much more important than any party. See you soon, Danny." With that, Jazz hung up.

Danny set down the phone. He was glad that his sister was going to be coming home from college for him. He had really missed her the last couple of years. And he was even more grateful for the back up. He knew deep down that his parents would accept him, but it was still incredibly nerve-wracking to be faced with revealing a secret that he'd kept from them for four years.

Now the people that he really wanted to see where Sam and Tucker. He knew they probably were not up yet, so he grabbed his cellphone and sent them both text messages asking them to meet him outside Fenton Works around noon. They would get the messages when they woke up.

* * *

(Noon, Outside Fenton Works)

"Mom, Dad? I'm heading out with Sam and Tucker! Don't wait up for me!" Danny called into the house.

"Okay, dear, be safe." Maddie Fenton called back. The best part about being eighteen? No curfew.

As he expected, both Sam and Tucker where just outside, heading up the stairs to Danny's door. He almost ran into them.

"Let's go, guys, I have a lot to tell you." Danny said as they began to walk down the deserted road.

* * *

(Half an hour later…)

Both of his friends had fallen silent as he told them about what had happened to the Ghost Zone, why it was happening, and Clockwork's intended solution. "Wow..." Tucker finally breathed. "That's some heavy stuff."

"I know. And all because I took the Crown of Fire from Pariah before he was locked up..." Danny sighed.

"Stop, Danny. It's like Clockwork told you: it wasn't your fault. You didn't know." Sam said.

"I want to help. I do." Danny said. "But… becoming the Ghost King? How can I expect the ghosts to accept a half-ghost as their king? According to Clockwork, it took him a whole month to convince the Ghost Council to even allow me to try at whatever sort of test the Crown of Fire has for the new king."

"What sort of test is it?" Sam asked.

"I don't really know." Danny answered. "He pretty much just said that the Crown has some sort of sentience, that it will decide if I'm worthy and if I'm not either it or the Grim Reaper will kill me."

Without warning, Sam pulled him into a brief kiss, just long enough for Tucker to chuckle a little. When she pulled away she stared into his eyes. "I know that this whole situation seems insane, but I think you've all ready made your decision."

Danny sighed and nodded. "The Ghost Zone is collapsing. Whatever happens to me, I can't allow that to happen… not if I can do anything about it."

"There you go, then." Sam said.

"There is one more thing..." Danny said. "If I do become the Ghost King, it's highly likely that I'll have to leave for the Ghost Zone. Perhaps not permanently, but I will definitely have to live there. I can't… I can't bare the thought of my parents not knowing..."

Tucker wrapped his arm around Danny's shoulder. "Dude, we understand."

Sam seemed a little more reluctant, but, then again, her relationship with her own parents were not nearly as good as the two boys in the group. She was all ready counting down the last few weeks before her eighteenth birthday when she would receive her inheritance from her grandmother and she could move out. Finally, she sighed. "Yes, of course. If that's what you want, then we are one hundred percent behind you."

"Jazz is coming back into town tonight, and we'll talk to my parents tomorrow. But, for now… let's go do something fun." Danny said.

"Like what? Grab a burger? See a movie?" Tucker asked.

Danny shook his head. "It doesn't matter to me what we do, as long as you two are with me."

* * *

(The Next Day)

After a day of fun and a second sleepless night in a row, Danny was starting to feel a little worn down. It didn't help that the weight of his soon-to-be decision kept pressing down on him every few minutes. He would forget for a brief few seconds, and then his brain would remind him: _I could become the Ghost_ _K_ _ing_.

Thank God for Jazz, she had stayed up with him nearly all night giving him a quiet impromptu therapy session. It wasn't just about Clockwork's offer, but the upcoming reveal to his parents. The reality gauntlet incident had helped with his fears a lot, but this was still a four year old secret, and he was revealing that his true nature to his parents. And, after that, he would have to blow their minds even further with the knowledge that he might become the next Ghost king.

Breakfast rolled around and Danny heard Sam and Tucker arrive. Right on time. Danny and Jazz glanced at each other, and headed downstairs. Maddie smiled up at her children as they walked down the stairs. "Ah, Danny, good. I was just about to call you down. Your friends are here."

"I know." Danny replied.

"Pancakes?" Maddie asked.

"Maybe later." Danny took a deep breath. "Mom, Dad? I need to talk with you."

"Of course, sweetie, what is it?" Maddie asked.

"What do you need to talk about, son? Something to do with ghosts?" Jack asked, smiling widely.

"Actually… yes." Danny sighed. Jack's smile started to widen in excitement until he noticed the looks on his children's faces. Danny's friends were beginning to look nervous. Even Jack could tell that what Danny had to say was a little more serious than just reporting a ghost sighting. "First I'd like to say that I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what, Danny?" Maddie asked.

"I've been… well… I've been keeping a huge secret from you for the better part of the last four years." Danny said. "I'm sorry that I never told you before. But by the time that I realized that I didn't have to keep my secret from you, I was all ready too used to keeping it to myself. I have something to confess about… Phantom."

"Is it that you and your friends are friends with Phantom?" Maddie guessed. "Because your father and I have known that for several years now."

"How did you know that?" Tucker asked, shocked.

"Phantom uses Fenton equipment. The only way he could have gotten that equipment is from Jazz or Danny since we haven't given him any." Maddie explained.

"Mom, Dad… Sam, Tucker, and myself are friends with Phantom. We won't deny it." Jazz said.

"But I'm not." Danny said, meeting his parents eyes. After a brief hesitation, a bright iridescent ring formed around his waist, split in two, and traveled over his body. As the rings moved over his body, it left a transformation in its wake. Jack and Maddie could only stare in shock as their son transformed into Phantom. "That's because I am Phantom."

Neither Maddie nor Jack missed the way that Jazz, Sam, and Tucker all subtly moved to position themselves so they could quickly get between Danny and his parents if they needed to. But if the two elder Fentons were sure about anything, it was that they were in too much shock to do much of anything.

For at least a minute, no one spoke. Finally, Danny seemed to grow nervous at the fact that his parents were not saying anything. "Mom? Dad?" He prompted.

Maddie slowly moved towards her son, a little cautious of how protective his friends and her daughter were being of him. She reached out and touched his cheek. He flinched a little at the contact, but did not pull away from her. There was no warmth to his skin. "How?" Was all she could ask.

"The accident with the Portal in my freshman year." Danny answered, his eyes downcast. "I'm so sorry for keeping this from you. I didn't know how to tell you."

Before Danny could say anything else, he was swept up into an embrace by his mother, and his father embraced them both. Danny nearly made himself intangible out of shock, but then stopped when he realized he wasn't being attacked.

"My baby! Are you all right? Are you… are you…?" Maddie couldn't say the word.

Danny transformed back into his human form for her. She could feel the heat return to his body and his heart beating in his chest. "I'm not dead."

"We believe that the Portal fused ectoplasm to his DNA." Jazz explained. "He is still alive, just with all the powers of a ghost."

"But, Danny… all those times..." Maddie began, and trailed off.

"We've been attacking our own son all these years?" Jack finally spoke, his eyes wide with shock. "Why didn't you tell us?"

All Danny could do was shrug.

"There's one more thing..." Jazz began.

Maddie and Jack pulled away from their son and was shocked to see the beginnings of tears in his eyes.

* * *

(Later)

Everything was quiet in the Fenton household. It hardly mattered that their son would still be alive, it felt like they were mourning him anyway. As king, he would be needed in the Ghost Zone, and no one could know how often he could visit or be visited. And there was the fact that Danny Fenton would have to disappear for good. Maddie didn't have it in her heart to fake her son's death (if he survived the trial and didn't die for real). Perhaps they could say that he had moved abroad. It technically wouldn't be a lie.

"Do you really have to do this?" Jack Fenton asked. "The Ghost Zone has managed this long without a king..."

"The previous king was sealed away before, so he could keep the Ghost Zone together by just existing." Danny explained. "Pariah Dark is truly gone. Besides, none of the rest of you have seen the state of the Ghost Zone. It's on the verge of dimensional collapse. And if the Zone goes, all the dimensions will collapse as well."

"But if you fail this test, you'll die." Maddie said softly.

"If all the dimensions collapse, I'll die." Danny told her. "I know you're worried about me, Mom, but I have to try. If I can help, I have to."

"Perhaps we should all go to Clockwork." Jazz suggested. "He could give us more details. About this test and what would be expected of Danny if he becomes king."

"That sounds like a good idea." Sam said. "It would give us a chance to see how bad the Ghost Zone really is."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Danny said. "Trust me, it's in really bad shape. The Ghost Zone around the Fenton Portal is particularly bad. Besides, I have a better idea. Clockwork?" Danny called.

"You called?" Clockwork answered immediately. The entire family turned to face the ghost now in their living room.


	4. Discussions Part 2

**LES: We will be properly introduced to Thanatos in this chapter, and I just wanted to say that I've borrowed a bit from one of my favorite books in relation to the Grim Reaper and mixed it up with some of _Danny Phantom_ 's own mythology. So part of the inspiration for Thanatos rightly goes to the novel "On A Pale Horse" by Piers Anthony.**

 **Chapter IV: Discussions Part 2**

* * *

"So you have told your parents? Good." Clockwork said. Maddie couldn't stop herself from glaring at the ghost. It had nothing to do with her old prejudices. But this was the ghost who was going to take away her son and possibly lead him to his death.

"I have decided." Danny told Clockwork. "I have decided to try."

Clockwork nodded solemnly. "Then I suppose you would like more information?"

"Exactly." Jazz said, stepping up to Clockwork. "Like what sort of test is this?"

"I'm afraid that I cannot give specific details on what the test will incorporate." Clockwork said. "The Crown creates a unique test for every prospective king, designed to test whichever traits the spirit of the Crown feels would be the greatest obstacle for the prospective ruler. I witnessed several ghosts attempt the test when the king before Pariah stepped down, and then I watched as Pariah succeeded. It is an entirely mental exercise, and could last for many hours. Pariah was held under the sway of the Crown for ten hours before it accepted him."

"Ten hours?" Sam gasped.

"That was unusually long." Clockwork said. "And none of the failures could make it past one hour into the ritual. After the Crown has accepted the prospective ruler, it will bind the new Ghost King's spirit to the very fabric of the Ghost Zone. According to Pariah, this was the most difficult part of the ritual. The Crown will open your mind to the reality of infinity. At that point, you would just need the mental energy left over to keep yourself from being overwhelmed by infinity."

"So you're asking me to save some mental energy at the end of a ten hour long mental battle?" Danny asked, disbelieving.

"The ritual is extremely difficult. It was designed to be that way. While the new Ghost King is focusing on keeping himself together, the Ring of Rage is given over to its new owner. It will rejuvenate you and make it easier for you to keep your identity against the vastness of the Ghost Zone. It is at this point that all the ghost witnesses present offer their immediate fealty to the new king. After that, we can take our time before having a public crowning, because the new king's spirit will have all ready tamed and restored the Ghost Zone."

"And then what happens after that?" Danny asked.

"After that, you form your Ghost Council. They will be there to assist you in ruling for the first several decades. And, if you wish, you could take a bride." Clockwork did not miss the way that Danny and Sam's eyes met briefly at that. "Of course. Though I do have to mention that, due to being human, she is ineligible to become the reigning Ghost Queen. She could, however, hold the title of Princess Consort. Legally married to you, but with the status of a princess rather than a queen."

"The Ghost King can leave the Ghost Zone." Clockwork continued. "But being away for more than a couple days will start to negatively effect the Ghost Zone. If you become King, you will need to relocate to the Ghost Zone. If the Crown of Fire accepts you, then Pariah's Keep will immediately become Phantom's Keep and will reform itself to your taste. Along with the Keep you will get access to the Ghost King's skeleton army and authority over all ghosts whether they make their home in the Ghost Zone or the human world."

"And what about finishing High School?" Maddie asked.

"I've finished the end of the year tests." Danny said.

"But attending graduation may not be possible." Clockwork said. "No half-ghost has ever worn the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage before. They are two incredibly powerful ghost artifacts that will fill your body with more ectoplasm than you've ever had before. You will have so much ectoplasm that it might not be able to be contained by your human form. You may continue to glow as you do in your ghost form, and your eyes might stay green permanently. The Ghost Zone cannot wait that long."

Danny sighed. "One week. I'll attempt the ritual in one week."

"Then I shall get everything ready for you. You are welcome to come stay with me the evening before the ritual. And then we can travel to the Keep together."

"Can my friends or family come?" Danny asked.

"They can come to the Keep, but they cannot be in the room while the ritual is taking place." Clockwork said. "It is an intense ceremony and there will be many spectral witnesses, adding more into the room would be nerve-wracking for anyone." And with that, Clockwork vanished back into the Ghost Zone.

* * *

(Six Days Later)

Over the course of the next week, Danny attempted to do everything he could to make peace with the fact that he would be either dead or the King of Ghosts the very next week. Clockwork had been kind enough to send him several tomes that described what sort of duties that Ghost King had, and what would be expected of him. Sam and Tucker helped him go over the books. Jazz would have helped, but she had to return to classes for the school week. But she promised that she'd come back and go with him into the Ghost Zone. Even if she couldn't be in the room, she wanted to be there. Sam and Tucker had promised the same thing. Maddie and Jack had desperately wanted to come as well, but neither of them were sure how the ghosts would take having two ghost hunters so close to one of their most important rituals, even if the ritual focused on their son. They did promise to come to his coronation (if there was a coronation), because at that time he would have the authority to keep his parents safe from harmful ghosts.

Shockingly, one of the hardest meetings that Danny had in his last week in the human world was one that he hadn't even considered at first, but then dreaded when he was forced to face it. It was telling Mr. Lancer that he would be unable to finish the last few weeks of school, and that he would not be able to attend graduation.

"Mr. Fenton, I know that I have little reason to try to convince you to finish these last few weeks, but you have completed your final tests, and I suppose that's really all we can do. But could you reconsider attending graduation? You've really pulled yourself together these last few years, and you deserve to be there."

"I'm really sorry, Mr. Lancer. Something has come up, and I'm afraid that it's made attending impossible." Danny said. He wrestled with the thought of perhaps telling Mr. Lancer the truth. After all, despite favoring Dash Baxter in his early high school years, Mr. Lancer was about as fair to him as Danny could expect. He had missed so much class time and had slept through so many of his lectures that Danny couldn't blame him for the detentions.

"Well, then, I guess this is as good a time as any to tell you that you have passed your tests and earned the required credits for graduation." Mr. Lancer said. "I shall have your diploma prepared and given to you early. When would you like it?"

"Before Friday would be great." Danny said.

"According to your parents, you're going abroad." Mr. Lancer commented. "Well, I certainly hope that you would be willing to visit when you get back from… wherever you're going."

Danny flinched, and then made up his mind. "I don't think I'm ever coming back." He said. He glanced at the door to Mr. Lancer's office to make sure that it was locked. "I have something to confess..."

* * *

Danny had not left the office until over an hour later. To his shock, Mr. Lancer was not incredibly surprised when Danny revealed that he was actually Phantom. It turns out that he had all ready been suspicious for about a year now. But Lancer had been surprised when Danny revealed to him the exact reason why he wouldn't be able to attend graduation. Upon hearing the story, Mr. Lancer indicated his understanding and once again promised to get Danny his high school diploma before Friday. He also gave a promise that he would never reveal Danny's secret to anyone, and go on pretending that he had just gone abroad.

Sam and Tucker had been really surprised that Danny had revealed himself to Mr. Lancer of all people. But once Danny had explained his reasoning, they agreed that it needed to be done.

And so it was on Friday afternoon that Danny walked down the steps of Casper High School for the last time. Several of the students waved good-bye to him, convinced that he was going abroad to study foreign ghosts for his parents. Mr. Lancer met him at the bottom of the steps, and gave the young man his diploma. "Good luck, Danny." Mr. Lancer said, leaving some of the watching students shocked that he'd called Danny by his first name rather than 'Mr. Fenton'.

"Thank you, Mr… William." Danny corrected himself. The two shook hands and Danny went on his way.

* * *

That night, they traveled into the Ghost Zone to head for Clockwork's place. Danny had been really nervous about taking anyone else into the Ghost Zone with it being so unstable. But, in the end, Jazz, Tucker, and Sam absolutely refused to be left behind. But Danny first insisted on checking out the portal to make sure that the Ghost Zone had not actually collapsed into the Unworld in the week since he'd seen it last.

"Hold onto my hand." Danny told Tucker, standing next to the open portal.

"What? Why?" Tucker asked.

"Because the last time I looked through the portal, the zone around the portal was on the verge of collapsing into ghost hell. I just want to make sure it hasn't totally collapsed. And, if it has, I'll feel more secure if someone is anchoring me from here.

"Is it really that bad?" Tucker asked as both he and Jazz moved forward to hold onto Danny. Sam busied herself with the Speeder.

"It really is that bad." Danny confirmed, slowly sticking his head back into the portal.

Good news, the Unworld had not spilled over into the Ghost Zone yet. Even more good news, the transparent part of the Ghost Zone had shifted. The Fenton Portal was still in the darkness, but Danny could see the edge and into the green Ghost Zone beyond. Bad news, the zone was still in chaos.

Danny leaned back into the human world. "Okay, good news it's not as bad as last time. But the Unworld is still looming out there."

"You can still find your way to Clockwork's, right?" Tucker asked.

"Clockwork's tower is protected, so it's not going to move around any time soon." Danny answered. He went ghost and phased inside the Speeder. "I know I normally don't drive, but with the Ghost Zone in it's current state..."

"I understand." Sam said, moving over to make room for Danny in the driver's seat.

"Danny?" It was Maddie Fenton, and her husband stood behind her, gazing fondly at their son.

"Take care, son, and good luck." Jack Fenton said with a sad smile on his face.

"I'll come back as soon as it's over to let you know what happened." Jazz promised.

"Thank you, sweetie." Maddie said. "I love you, never forget that."

"I love you too Mom… Dad." Danny said. "And thanks… for everything." Jazz and Tucker loaded up into the Speeder and the engines hummed to life. And then the Speeder shot off into the portal, leaving the two elder Fentons behind to worry about the well-being of their son.

* * *

(The Ghost Zone)

"Oh my God!" Jazz, Tucker, and Sam all gasped in shock when they saw what had happened to the Ghost Zone. Of course, the one thing that was immediately noticeable was the Unworld, as Danny had called it. And they knew that Danny had not been exaggerating about the state of the Ghost Zone one bit.

"Okay, even I have to admit that this is unnerving." Sam admitted. "And black is my favorite color!"

"I'll say!" Tucker commented. "This is just damn creepy."

"Maybe you'll know why I was worried now." Danny commented.

"I guess so." Jazz said. "This does look pretty bad. I mean… the Ghost Zone always looks creepy, but that nothingness is much creepier."

"Thankfully, we won't be in this mess for long." Danny said, and sure enough they flew out of the darkness on their way to Clockwork's tower. "Next stop: Clockwork's."

* * *

(Clockwork's Tower)

Just like every time Danny had visited Clockwork before, the door had been left open for him. It was hard to surprise any ghost who could see all of time. However, when Danny entered, he noticed that Clockwork was not alone. And even though Danny had never met Clockwork's guest before, he felt that he knew who it was.

Sometimes the portrayal of certain ghosts in the media ended up being pretty close to the real thing. And, really, a skeletal figure in a full length black cloak holding a wicked-looking scythe could only be one ghost.

"Yeah, great, thanks for reminding me that I could die tomorrow." Danny sighed.

"I felt that you should meet Thanatos." Clockwork said.

Thanatos set aside his scythe and moved over to Danny. "Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I've wanted to meet you." Thanatos said, and Danny blinked in shock. Thanatos sounded a bit more… modern than he expected for an ancient ghost of death. "I just wanted to say… thanks for not taking my job."

"Taking your job? What?" Tucker asked, confused. "Why would Danny take the job of the… Grim Reaper?"

"Just calling me the Reaper will be fine. The Reaper before me was pretty grim, but that's not me." Thanatos said, confusing everyone. "Ah, I see. Clockwork never explained the connection between halfas and the Reaper."

Without another word, Thanatos began to remove his cloak. Danny and the others fully expected to see a skeleton underneath, but as he removed the cloth the image of the skeleton began to fade away. An illusion? The cloak was removed and was being held protectively in Thanatos' arms, everyone in the room except Clockwork gasped in shock.

Without the cloak, Thanatos looked so much like a normal human that it was actually scary. Well, he wasn't completely like a normal human. Like Danny in his ghost form, Thanatos had white hair, though neatly trimmed, ectoplasm-green eyes, and a ghostly glow. Under the cloak, he wore clothes that would not be out of place in the early 1900's. "Good to meet you, Danny. I would give you my name in return, but I've been Thanatos for so long that I've forgotten it." He laughed.

"You..." Danny gasped. "You're a halfa?"

Thanatos nodded. "Yes, though not in the way that you are. Back when I was born, halfas were created… let's say… more naturally."

"Okay, how does that even work?" Tucker asked.

"Do you really want me to go into detail about how I was conceived?" Thanatos asked.

"Uh… on second thought, never mind." Tucker replied.

"So… there's more than just three halfas?" Danny asked, shocked.

"Well… four. Just you, Danielle, Vladimir, and myself." Thanatos answered. "Usually the Ghost Council or king allows only a few halfas to exist at a time. Halfas, though most of the ghosts are unaware of it, are of vital importance to the management of the Ghost Zone, and it was for that exact reason that I was allowed to be born and you created."

"But if I was allowed to be created for some sort of specific purpose, why are the Observant Council so pissed off at me?" Danny asked.

"I can illuminate that." Clockwork said. "Most ghosts believe that the role of Thanatos has to be held by a spirit with no capacity to feel. This is because nearly all humans have an innate fear of death, which translates into a fear of the oblivion beyond once they become a ghost. They cannot imagine that a spirit who can feel could go around ending lives and afterlives while maintaining feelings while remaining sane. But the exact opposite is true. Retaining one's humanity is essential for the Reaper."

"If I were an unfeeling blob of ectoplasm under a black cloak, there would be nothing in either world that could stop the Reaper from going on a rampage." Thanatos said. "Being the Spirit of Death is simply too powerful a job to leave to normal ghosts with their diminished humanity. It is my humanity that keeps me in check, to Reap only those souls who's time has come, and most important of all… to bring an end to pain."

"That is why there is always at least one halfa in existence." Clockwork picked up the explanation. "Vlad Masters was originally going to take over for the current Thanatos when he found his way as a spirit, but he has lost himself to obsession and has turned his back on his humanity. So the Ghost Council authorized the creation of another halfa, and that halfa was you."

"You mean I was created to become the next Spirit of Death?" Danny asked, shocked.

"Yes, but there is one thing that the Observant Council never counts on… free will." Clockwork said. "Your choices led you further and further away from your original destiny. First there was the alternate future where you became evil. That convinced the Observants that you were a mistake and tried to get me to destroy you. And then when you faced Pariah Dark you opened up the path to a third destiny: that of possibly becoming the Ghost King." Clockwork gestured to a corner of the room, and Danny was a little horrified to see the Fenton thermos that contained his evil alternate future self: Dark Dan. "That future is now behind you. And the door to your destiny as the next Reaper has closed. You have a much grander destiny unfolding out before you now." He gestured up to his view screen. As everyone looked up at the screen, an image appeared on the screen of the future. It was the inside the throne room of Pariah's Keep, but the castle had changed, leaving behind the previous red-dominated color scheme and replaced with one that was black and white with pale green flames burning in the wall scones. Upon the throne sat an older Danny Phantom, wearing the Ring of Rage on his hand and the Crown of Fire upon his head. His outfit was a little different, reminding everyone of Dark Dan's outfit without all the sharp angles. He looked every inch a king.


	5. To The Keep

**Chapter V: To The Keep**

* * *

No one slept that night. Even the humans. It was easier for the ghosts and halfas to remain awake. This was the longest time that Danny had spent in the Ghost Zone without returning to the human world, and he discovered that his ghost form had started to feed off the natural ectoplasm of the surroundings. He didn't feel hungry, and he didn't feel tired.

So Danny spent most of the time getting to know Thanatos. "You must be incredibly powerful." Danny commented.

"What gives you that idea?" Thanatos asked.

"Well, even though you are a halfa, you are the Spirit of Death." Danny said. "You can travel anywhere and be totally hidden from detection. Even in my human form, I can't completely avoid ghost hunting devices."

"Actually, in my real form, I'm probably not even half as powerful as you are." Thanatos confessed. "Most of the specialty powers come directly from the cloak and the scythe." He took the cloak in his hands. "Besides hiding my true nature, the magic woven into the fabric cloaks my presence completely from all methods both human and ghostly. It also makes me completely immune to injury, but only if I'm wearing the cloak. As for the scythe… well, you can guess."

"I have to say, as a goth, I'm pretty honored to meet you." Sam said with a smile.

"Thank you." Thanatos replied with a smile. "There is the one downside of being the Reaper. I exist to help people, but I am feared and there's very little I can do about it. Speaking of helping people…" He turned his attention directly on Danny. "I'm sorry."

"What for?" Danny asked.

"I was there, watching, the day you gained your ghost powers." Thanatos confessed. "After I saw what happened to you, I went straight to the Ghost Council and forced them to promise to go back to making halfas the natural way like how I was made. I was born this way, and there was never any pain that came with my powers. I was forbidden from assisting you in anyway. Over a hundred years of being the Reaper, and there's never been a time when I wanted to help more and couldn't."

Danny still couldn't quite understand the link that Thanatos was making between helping people and death, but he at least understood the part about not wanting people to suffer. It had probably hurt him horribly to stand in the room listening to Danny's screams as ectoplasm was fused to his DNA and be unable to stop his pain.

"You don't understand." Thanatos said, as if he read his mind. "It's fine, though. It took me decades to understand why I had to retain my humanity to do my job. For the first decade of being the Reaper, every time I got a moment to myself I would lock myself away in my lair and refuse to see anyone. After fifteen years, I went to the Ghost Council and threatened to Reap no more souls just so they would release me."

"What happened?" Jazz asked.

"Well, I'm still the Reaper." Thanatos said. "But they helped me come to terms with what I had to do. It still took seven years after that for me to completely understand."

"Speaking of being the Reaper, do you have the time to just sit here with us?" Sam asked.

"Nope." Thanatos said cheerfully. "Thankfully a century of practice has made me pretty good at duplicating myself."

The group laughed. "Well, I guess if anyone has to kill me tomorrow, I'm glad that it's someone who at least doesn't see it as murder."

"If it comes to that, I promise it will be entirely painless." Thanatos swore. "It's not very often that someone is able to have a swift, painless death directly from my scythe."

"Any last minute tips?" Danny asked, hoping that since Thanatos had been around for so long he would know more about this ritual.

"I'm old, but not that old." Thanatos said. "Even the Reaper before me was not old enough to have witnessed Pariah Dark ascend. I know that you are to be restrained for everyone's protection. I know which signs to look for that mean a failed test. And I know that having the concept of infinity forced into your mind is not a fun time." He tapped the side of his head.

"You know infinity?" Danny asked, amazed.

"Not even close." Thanatos responded. "There is a lot of life and afterlife in the human world and the Ghost Zone, but not infinite life. Even that threw me for a loop at first."

"Are there any other ghosts who know infinity?" Danny asked.

"Clockwork, maybe?" Thanatos replied. "Then again, I'm not sure if there is an infinite amount of time lines or just a hell of a lot. Time itself is not infinite, but if there were an infinite amount of time lines..."

Clockwork floated into the room. "It's almost time." He said.

The group fell quiet and nodded in understanding. They stood up and waited for Thanatos to put back on his cloak and become the image of the Reaper once more. He picked up his scythe and checked to make sure that the blade was folded into the handle to prevent accidents. He led the others out of the room, with Danny bringing up the rear.

"Wait." Danny said, grabbing Sam's hand just before the followed the others out of the room. He pulled her into a kiss, which she gladly returned. When he pulled away, Sam was confused because she could still feel him. And then she realized that he was using one of his least used ghost powers: telepathy.

When he first developed the power a little over a year ago, Tucker had thought it would be a great power to use between the members of Team Phantom in battle. His idea was that Danny would be able to send them orders and hear their calls for assistance at all times. But that plan quickly went belly-up. It took too much concentration for Danny to use his telepathy in battle. Any time they tried it before, it was like his words had been coming through a badly-tuned radio. So it was basically reduced to a way for Team Phantom to talk privately.

" _Sam, if I survive this ritual, will you marry me?"_ Danny asked her.

Sam met his eyes and gave him a brave smile. _"When you survive the ritual, I will marry you."_

They kissed again.

* * *

(Formally Pariah's Keep)

It took them a bit longer to reach the Keep than normal, if only because they had to skirt the portions of the Ghost Zone that were too dangerous for the Specter Speeder to go through. This time, Danny allowed Sam to drive the Speeder as he flew alongside Clockwork and Thanatos. It made him more aware of just how poorly the Ghost Zone was doing and helped to steel his nerves.

Even though it took them a little over an hour, the amount of time between leaving Clockwork's and arriving and the Keep seemed ridiculously short to Danny.

Clockwork opened the door to the Keep and led the others inside. There were several ghosts milling around in just outside the throne room, but Clockwork led them away from the ghosts. Some of the ghosts stared at Danny and the humans as they passed, but didn't say anything. Danny wondered if they knew what he was there for.

They must have at least guessed something was up when he arrived with Clockwork and Thanatos, two of the most powerful spirits in the Ghost Zone. Deep and deeper into the Keep they went, to a series of chambers that were below the throne room.

Clockwork motioned to a door at the end of the hallway. "That is the room where the ritual will take place. Danny, your friends can wait in the room next to it. We will have some servants sent there to make sure they are taken care of."

"So, it's time?" Danny asked.

Clockwork and Thanatos nodded.

Almost immediately, Danny found himself buried under a group hug from Sam, Tucker, and Jazz. "I know you can do it." Jazz told him.

"Yeah, you can kick this test's ass." Tucker said.

"Be strong." Sam said simply.

They let him go and he gave them a nod and a smile. To pass the test he needed to have the bravery of a king. Then he turned around and followed Clockwork and Thanatos into the room.

It was a dimly lit room, which Clockwork had told him was for the mental sanity of those being tested. It was a round room, with raised benches around a central pillar. The Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage rested upon a small platform near the pillar. Upon the benches sat about a dozen ghosts. Danny recognized some of them. Frostbite and Princess Dora were there, to his relief. They favored him with small smiles before they returned to being impassive. Walker was also there, though like the others he didn't say a word upon Danny's entrance. He didn't recognize any of the other ghosts, but figured that they were all rulers of large portions of the Ghost Zone. An Observant was there, but Danny could never tell them apart.

Clockwork and Thanatos guided Danny over to the pillar, and they had him stand with his back pressed against the cold stone. The Observant hit the butt of his staff against the stone ground and chains of ectoplasm appeared out of nowhere and bound Danny to the pillar.

He clamped down on the urge to escape and forced his body to relax. Clockwork and Thanatos stood before him. Thanatos brought out his scythe and with a flick of his wrist the blade swung out of its sleeve in the handle and snapped into place. That pure black blade, the bane of all living things, which could end life with just a touch would take his life and afterlife in an instant if things went wrong.

"Are you sure you wish to go through with this?" Clockwork asked one final time.

Danny took a deep breathe and mentally reached out to his friends and sister in the other room. _"I love you guys. All of you."_ He thought towards them.

" _You don't have to do this, Danny."_ Tucker replied softly.

" _I do."_ Danny said firmly.

" _Be strong, Danny. I love you."_ Sam's voice filled his mind.

" _I love you too, Sam. Good-bye."_ He closed off the mental link to them, as he had no desire to subject them to whatever was about to happen to him. He took another deep breath. "I'm sure." He answered Clockwork's question.

"Remember to believe in yourself." Clockwork whispered to him. Then he turned away from Danny and picked up the Crown of Fire. All the ghosts leaned forward as Clockwork raised the Crown above Danny's head.

As the crown touched Danny's head, everything suddenly went black.


	6. The Crown's Test

**Chapter VI: The Crown's Test**

* * *

From the moment that Danny could see again, he knew at once that the Crown was not going to go easy on him.

He was inside Pariah's Keep, sitting on the throne. Except it was Phantom's Keep now, and looked exactly as he had seen it in Clockwork's vision of the future. Kneeling down on the ground before him was the broken and bloody form of Dark Dan.

But as Danny gazed down at him, he came to realize that it was not just the ghost's body that was broken, but his spirit. The once evil being could not even bare to meet Danny's eyes. "Please..." He begged. "I swear I'll go away, live in some distant corner of the Ghost Zone. You'll never see me again, just let me go..."

Before he could respond, he felt the fear and anger that he felt for the alternate future version of himself multiply exponentially. It completely drowned out any feeling of pity that Danny was having for the ghost and filled him with a horrible rage.

"There is nowhere you can run to be free of me. The entire Ghost Zone is mine. Execute him." Danny heard himself order in a cold voice.

Without a word of complaint, Thanatos appeared out of nowhere, swinging his scythe to bring it to bear on Dark Dan. "No!" His alternate future self cried out as the scythe swung and removed his head as easily as a hot knife through butter. Danny watched in morbid fascination as, just before the body dissolved away, it briefly split into its separate components. The ghostly bodies of Vlad Plasmius and Danny Phantom dissolved into nothing, leaving nothing more than a smear of ectoplasm on the ground.

"Clean that up." Danny ordered shortly before standing and walking away without a backwards glance. As he walked past a window, he saw his own reflection and gasped in horror. His reflection _was_ Dark Dan.

Words that were made up of many voices filled his head as he stared in horror at his own demonic face. **HATRED AND FEAR CREATE THE REAL DEMONS.**

The crown did not give him a moment to rest before they were on to the next vision.

He was floating in the middle of the Ghost Zone. He could hear the cries of every single one of the ghosts, calling out to him for aid. He didn't know what the threat was, but he knew that he needed to help.

But then, before he could rush to their aid, a new voice rose up and drowned out the others. "Danny! Please help!"

Danny spun around, his eyes wide with horror. "Sam!"

Sam was laying down on an island close by. The ghosts were screaming for help in his mind, but it looked like whatever was attacking them had all ready gotten to Sam. Blood flowed down from the terrible open wound across her neck. She stared up at him, one hand attempting to stem the flow of her lifeblood, and the other hand reaching up to him, begging him to help with her eyes.

 **YOU MUST CHOOSE!** The voice of the crown roared at him.

Choose? Danny panicked. Choose between helping the uncountable multitude of ghosts or the woman he loved?! For a moment, he was frozen by indecision, unable to make the choice that he knew he must. But, as he gazed upon Sam's ruined form, he remembered what she'd told him. _Be strong._

He felt like his heart was being torn out. "I'm so sorry, Sam!" He cried, before turning his back to her and racing off into the Ghost Zone.

He barely flew a couple of feet before the voices of the ghosts vanished.

 **THE RIGHT DECISION IS NEVER EASY.** **THE WELL-BEING OF THE GHOST ZONE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANY ONE LIFE.**

A bright flash of light appeared behind him, and he turned to face where he had left Sam. But, her ruined body was no longer there. Instead, a new vision of Sam appeared before him, her body radiating ectoplasm. She was a ghost, but she was strong, glorious, and just as beautiful as ever.

The vision of Sam spoke with the voice of the crown. **"HUMAN LIFE IS TEMPORARY. HUMANS THAT DIE ARE REBORN INTO THEIR SECOND LIFE AS GHOSTS."**

Sam faded away, leaving him alone in the darkness. Danny waited for the next test to start while wondering at the last thing the crown had told him. It seemed less a test and more of a reward. Or, at least, it was helping him get over his fears of the deaths of his friends.

It took a few more moments to realize that he actually was in the next test. The Darkness, it was just like the Unworld: the terrifying dimension that he'd gotten a glimpse of through the transparent Ghost Zone.

Pure terror claimed his senses when he came to realize that he was not in a transparent Ghost Zone. He was actually within the Unworld. No ghost powers, and even his human body felt weakened from exposure to the debilitating effects of the Unworld.

 **FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN IS NATURAL.** The crown told him. **BUT ONE CANNOT BECOME PARALYZED BY THE FEAR. IT IS THE KING'S WILL THAT HOLDS THE DARKNESS AT BAY.**

The darkness was swept away and the terror went with it. Now he found himself standing in the middle of Amity Park. On his left was a human army, all of them armed with anti-ghost weaponry. On his right was an equally armed army of ghosts. Danny knew that the crown was showing him a possible war between the Ghost Zone and humans, and it wanted him to choose a side.

He'd all ready been taught that the Ghost Zone was more important than a single person, but this was not a single person. It was a choice between the entire Ghost Zone and all the humans. But even as the king of the Ghost Zone, he couldn't feel that humanity was unimportant. And hadn't Thanatos showed him that humanity was important?

His decision made, he flew forward and placed himself between the two armies, his arms held out against both of them. "Stop!" He screamed.

The two armies stopped at once.

 **THE GHOST ZONE IS IMPORTANT, BUT IT CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT HUMANITY. NEITHER CAN EXIST WITHOUT THE OTHER. TO DESTROY HUMANITY IS TO DESTROY YOURSELF.**

The tests continued on and on, never giving Danny a moment to rest. After about fifty tests, Danny did notice a pattern and realized that the crown was most keen on testing his loyalty to the ghosts that he was to rule over. Test after test after test, they kept coming back to the scenario of making him choose between the Ghost Zone and humans. Ghosts and his family, ghosts and his friends, ghosts and Sam…

Another reoccurring theme was how he would treat his former enemies among the ghosts. They revisited Dark Dan at least ten more times, always with different scenarios. Sometimes Dan would still be evil, and sometimes he was repentant. The decisions were never easy because the original fear and hatred that he felt for Dark Dan was always in the back of his mind.

The Crown threw another wrench into thing by quizzing him about Vlad, which added another level of complexity due to being a halfa like Danny. What would he do if Vlad committed a crime in the Ghost Zone? In the human world? Did Vlad's ghost half give the Ghost King ultimate authority over Vlad's fate, or was did his human half mean he belonged to the human world?

Danny reacted and answered the Crown's scenarios as best as he could. But it kept going on and on. Danny had no idea how much time had passed since the ritual started, but it had to be at least several hours. And there was the nagging thought: even if I pass these tests, the worst part is yet to come.

The tests were incredibly varied. Sometimes the Crown tested his morals or judgment. Sometimes the Crown just put him in different scenarios and he had no say on what happened, as if it was just showing him the consequences of his decisions. And sometimes it seemed to give him advice or even rewards.

And, then, suddenly everything changed. The images and sensations ceased and suddenly Danny felt himself drowning under a tidal wave under a wave of knowledge. Not infinity, but what seemed like general knowledge. The things that he had learned from Clockwork's books was being expanded upon and supplemented by the knowledge that was being given to him now.

A brief thought passed through his mind: _is the test portion over?_ But he couldn't dwell on it because of the amount of knowledge that was being forced into his brain. He was sure of one thing, it would take him weeks to sort it all out.

An unknowable amount of time later, it happened.

He felt as if his body had been stripped away from him and he was just a thought lost in the universe. For the first time since the trail began, he actually cried out in shock not just in his mind but physically as well. Danny knew it was infinity.

He became aware of just how big the Infinite Realms were, and it was infinitely big. The staggering size of the Ghost Zone almost destroyed his mind. It was not just the ghosts of the human realm. It stretched all the way across the infinite universe and into all the parallel universes. Not just human ghosts or native spirits inhabited the Ghost Zone. Alien lifeforms, real alien lifeforms, also entered the Ghost Zone upon their deaths. But the alien civilizations were so far away that were was really no way for Danny, even with the knowledge of infinity and all the power of the Ghost Zone at his disposal, to actually rule over them.

Infinity was literally so massive that if two ghosts flying faster than the speed of light started flying towards each other from opposite sides of the Ghost Zone, they would never meet even if they flew for eternity.

It was one thing to turn the idea of infinity into a metaphor, that was was nothing compared to having the reality of it shoved into her mind.

It took every bit of his concentration to keep himself together in the face of infinity. He didn't even realize that he could once again see the room that he had been tied in. Nor did he notice when he was untied.

* * *

Clockwork recognized when Danny Phantom was given infinity. No one could possibly keep their composure in the face of that. Every single ghost in the room became the liveliest that they'd been for hours. He had passed the Crown's test, and was the new Ghost King. Clockwork glanced at Thanatos. "Now."

Thanatos reached out and removed Danny's bonds. He fell forward, he was so focused on keeping his identity together that he didn't even notice when he fell onto his knees. Thanatos set aside his scythe and picked up the Ring of Rage. He quickly knelt down, picked up Danny's right hand, and placed the ring on his finger.

Thankfully the energy source within the Ring gave Danny the energy he needed to become aware of himself again. He kept taking in slow, deep breaths.

"Danny? Are you all right?" Clockwork asked, quietly.

"I passed?" Danny asked.

"Yes. Sit down." Clockwork said, helping Danny sit down in a more comfortable position.

"How long… has it been?" Danny asked.

"Nearly nine hours." Clockwork answered.

Danny sighed, dropping his head to his chest. "Felt like much longer."

"How do you feel?" Clockwork asked.

"Like my head is about to explode." Danny replied quietly. He had never been hungover before, because he couldn't physically drink enough alcohol to overcome his body's metabolism, but he imagined that this is what it felt like. Now he was very glad that the room was so dimly lit.

As one, all of the ghosts that were witness stood up. "Long reign the Ghost King." They said softly.

* * *

(The Next Room, A Few Minutes Ago)

It was probably the longest time that the three friends had been in each others company when no one was having a good time. They hardly spoke to each other, all of them too worried to speak.

Sam stood at the window, just staring absentmindedly out into the Ghost Zone while Jazz and Tucker took turns checking the time on their cellphones.

And then, they all looked up at each other. None of them could sense the presence of ectoplasm like Danny could, but no one could miss the sudden change of the room around them. For the whole nine hours that they'd been there, the room had the same blood red design scheme as the rest of the castle. But, suddenly the room itself became malleable. For a brief moment, the room became loose ectoplasm, and then it solidified again and the room now had black and white color scheme.

The three friends stared at each other. "Does this mean…?" Tucker began.

They couldn't hear anything going on in the next room, but that wasn't any different for the whole nine hours they'd been there.

"He must've done it!" Jazz exclaimed and she and Tucker rushed over to join Sam at the window. A change was sweeping over the Ghost Zone. The chaos was fading and leaving behind the Ghost Zone that they all remembered. "The Ghost Zone has been restored just like Clockwork said it would be!"

A few moments of giving each other hugs of relief, and the door opened. Thanatos walked in. Once the door was closed behind him, he removed his hood, revealing his real face. "As I'm sure you can tell, Danny Phantom has successfully passed the test."

"Can we see him?" Jazz asked. "I just want to check on him before going back to the human world and telling our parents that he's all right."

"Of course." Thanatos said. "There's just a few things you should know before you do. He's currently experiencing a mental state that is a little bit like being hungover. So please keep your voices low when you are in the room. Also, do not be shocked by his appearance. The massive infusion of ectoplasm that his body has received is exactly how most ghosts grow and change. It's not a stark change, but there is a change."

Sam, Tucker, and Jazz immediately agreed to follow all the rules. Thanatos put back on his hood and began to lead the small group out into the hallway. As they stepped out, most of the ghosts were leaving the room. The humans stood out of the ghost's way, but there was really no need because they were the ones being given space due to the presence of Thanatos.

Only the Observant did not get out of Thanatos' way. Probably because the Observant were some of the only ghosts who knew that Thanatos was a halfa. Princess Dora and Frostbite, however, gave them smiles.

Once they got to the room, only Clockwork and Danny was left in the room. The center of the room was a large pillar, and Danny was sitting at its base, his head hanging low.

Thanatos was right about the changes to his ghost form. For the first thing that was noticeable was that his ghostly glow and become more intense. His outfit had changed, most closely resembling the outfit they had seen him wear in Clockwork's glimpse of the future. The most noticeable difference was that his outfit now included a cape. His body had changed a little too. Despite what some of the girls at Casper High might think about Danny Phantom, his super strength had nothing to do with his muscles. It pretty much had everything to do with the power of his ectoplasm 'reinforcing' his muscles.

For example, while he could easily lift and fly with an entire school bus filled with children in his ghost form, in his human form he could only barely manage to pick up Tucker. Now, however, he had muscles.

Not outrageous muscles like the ones Dark Dan had, but nicely toned muscles. Sam was a little glad that Danny was going to be living in the Ghost Zone now with no way for Paulina to get close to him, because he had upgraded from cute to hot, and there was no way she wanted to tolerate Paulina getting cozy with her phantom.

Sam rushed over to Danny as quickly and quietly as she could and knelt down in front of him. "Danny? How do you feel?" She asked, keeping her voice low like she promised.

"Huh. You wouldn't believe what I feel right now." Danny responded, looking up at her and giving her a dopey smile, like he was a little drunk. "Learning about infinity sucked big time, but it's really cool now that it's there." He paused and lowered his head. "My head really hurts. Thanatos says it's like a hangover. What the hell is the point of that?"

Tucker and Jazz came over and knelt down next to Sam. "Are you sure you're okay, Danny?" Jazz asked.

"I… think I'm okay." Danny said. "At least… I haven't been broken down into ectoplasm by Thanatos."

"Because I need to go back to the human world and let Mom and Dan know that you passed the test and that you're okay. They are probably worried sick."

"Yeah. I'm fine. Go." Danny whispered.

"I will get one of the servants to fly you back to the Portal." Thanatos said. "Tucker, Sam, would you like to go back too?"

"No. We'll stay here with Danny for now."

"Then I'll leave the Speeder with you." Jazz said. "I'll be back as soon as I can, Danny." Jazz leaned closer and kissed his forehead.

"Gross." Danny laughed softly.

As Jazz turned to follow Thanatos Sam grabbed her arm. "I'll walk you out." The young woman said.

"You don't have to." Jazz said.

"But I want to." Sam replied. Thanatos nodded in understanding and led both girls away.

"Ya think you can stand, dude? I mean… Your Majesty?" Tucker asked quietly.

"Don't even think I'm going to make my best friend call me something like that." Danny grumbled at him. "Give me… fifteen more minutes. I think."

"What's it feel like?" Tucker asked curiously.

"I can feel the entire Ghost Zone. You can't even imagine, Tuck. It extends across the entire universe. I can even feel the ghosts of alien civilizations."

"Did you just say… aliens?" Tucker asked, a little shocked.

* * *

(Phantom's Keep, Antechamber)

Given that there was a new Ghost King, the Keep was actually pretty quiet. Even the servants seemed to have been frozen in place. "What's with them?" Jazz asked.

"They will await their new king." Thanatos said. "Don't worry, the servants are not sentient ghosts being held there against their will, they are simply constructs of ectoplasm." He motioned one of them forward and it responded instantly. "Escort the King's sister safely back to the Fenton Ghost Portal." Thanatos told it. It bowed and began to lead Jazz away.

"See you later, Sam." Jazz said as she followed her ghostly escort.

Once Thanatos and Sam were alone save for the servants, Thanatos spoke to her. "I know why you came out here with me."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"I've been around for a long time, and I'm still part human." Thanatos said. "I can tell."

"Okay, then I guess I'll cut to the chase." Sam said. "If you are well over a century old, why do you still look so young? I wouldn't guess that you were over twenty."

"For the beginning of their existence, halfas age like humans. Which is good news for those of us who were born this way. Imagine if I were stuck as a baby! As we grow and mature, our ghost half grows and matures with us. The length of time that it takes depends largely on our age when we got our powers and in what way. But when the ghost half of ourselves has reached what might be known as full maturity, it stops growing and our human half stops aging as well." Thanatos explained. "Because I was born with my powers, I stopped aging at around 17. Vlad, who got his powers in late adolescence and without the benefit of having… 'ghost puberty' has taken a lot longer. He has barely reached his maturity and stopped aging. Now, if I had to make a guess, I would say that Dann… King Phantom will stop aging sometime in his mid-twenties."

For a while, nothing was said between the two. Thanatos knew what was on her mind, but also knew that they could probably stand there for a hundred years before she would say it.

"And here is the real reason you've come to me rather than Clockwork." Thanatos said. "You don't want to age past King Phantom, and the only way to accomplish that is to become a ghost."

"I… I didn't want to talk to Clockwork about this. He's got a soft spot for Danny, and I'm sure he'd tell him." Sam said quietly.

"You don't have to worry. I'm almost certain that King Phantom will understand." Thanatos said. "Yes, I can send you painlessly to the afterlife. But not now."

"Of course not!" Sam said. "I'll wait until Danny stops aging, of course."

"It certainly would make things a little less complicated." Thanatos said. "After that, you would be the reigning Ghost Queen in full. Not to mention that you would be able to have children with King Phantom at that point."

"Wait… so we can't have children now?" Sam asked, a little disappointed.

"Sorry, but no. By human standards, he is sterile." Thanatos said. "But by ghost standards, he is perfectly fine. Unfortunately, ghost reproduction is impossible for you."

"So I'm guess it's different from human reproduction?" Sam asked.

Thanatos nodded. "Ghosts can have sex, but the act is purely for pleasure. When two ghosts decide they want to have a child, they give of their own ectoplasm and use that as a base to form a child out of the ambient energy of the Ghost Zone."

Thanatos did not miss the way that a small smile formed on Sam's face. "So… these servant guys… will they listen to me yet?"

"Not yet. King Phantom will have to give you some control once he is feeling better." Thanatos said. "But I'd be willing to… ah… assist." Sam's grin widened and Thanatos nearly laughed out loud. _To be young and in love_. He thought to himself.


	7. Intermission

**Chapter VII: Intermission**

 **LES: I'm so sorry for the crappy romance writing. I'm so out of practice...**

* * *

It took Danny about half an hour for him to get back on his feet. By that time, his state of being drunk/hungover had faded and left him clear-headed. Of course, the Ghost Zone was now part of that head. But the nearly limitless energy that the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage gave him left him with more than enough energy to control it.

"So, dude, were these awesome new muscles worth it?" Tucker asked.

"Muscles?" Danny asked.

"Yeah. Check yourself out." Tucker said.

Danny looked down at himself and gasped in shock. His body was definitely more toned then it had been before the ritual. And he noticed the cape that his suit now included. "Now I guess I just need to check my human form." Danny commented. He morphed back into a human.

But Tucker noticed right away that he was no longer fully human. Not even his human form could contain all the ectoplasm in his body. The Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage were no longer visible, and just like Clockwork predicted, he still have the ghostly glow and his eyes were still ectoplasm-green. And he kept the muscles from his ghost form.

"No more blending in like that." Tucker commented, and described to Danny the changes his human form had undergone.

"I guess it's to be expected." Danny said, changing back into his ghost form. "Clockwork has always told us that a ghost's appearance changes based on the amount of ectoplasm they have."

"And besides the new cape, you don't look anything like… you-know-who." Tucker said.

"Thank god for little miracles." Danny sighed, looking around. "Where did Sam go?" He asked. "I remember that she was definitely here."

"Jazz needed to get back to let your parents know that you were okay. Sam went to see her off. But that was half an hour ago..." Tucker trailed off.

Without another word, and worried about her safety, Danny rushed out of the room, barely taking notice of the servants that were now bowing to him. He made it to the throne room and found Thanatos there. "Thanatos, where's Sam?" Danny asked.

"She's fine." Thanatos responded. "She said she was tired after being on pins-and-needles for the last week and not getting any sleep last night, so I had one of the guest suites prepared for her."

"Oh… yeah. I guess I forgot that we didn't get any sleep last night." Danny said. He didn't feel very tired, but he could tell that Tucker was on his last legs just by looking at him. "You should probably get some rest too, Tuck." Danny turned around and began to walk up to the throne. The Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep had been moved off the pedestal and the Ghost King's throne had been restored and changed to match it's new owner just like the rest of the castle. As Danny sat down on the throne, the room was suddenly filled nearly to the brim with all the servants who worked in the castle. As one, the constructs all bowed and acknowledged their new King.

"Prepare a guest suite for Tucker Foley and lead him there." Danny ordered, and several of the servants bowed and phased through the roof to prepare a room for the King's friend. "From this moment, you are to give Samantha Mason the respect she is due as my future bride and Princess-Consort. You may now carry on with your duties." The servants all phased out of the room, except for a small group who moved over to the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. They began to lift it up to carry it out of the room. "Leave the Sarcophagus in the Throne Room." Danny quickly interrupted. The servants bowed and merely set it to the side of the room and left to complete other chores.

"Dude, why would you want that thing anywhere near you?" Tucker asked, a little shocked.

Danny stood up from the throne. "Tucker, you have no idea how powerful I feel right now. The entire Ghost Zone is literally at my finger tips. I need something to remind me that I'm not all-powerful."

"It's the same reason that Thanatos is always near the King." Thanatos said, lifting his scythe. "No matter how powerful the ghost, there are always ways for them to be brought low. With both the Sarcophagus and the Death Scythe always in his sight, he will never forget the consequences of straying from the path."

There was nothing more to say to that.

* * *

(A Couple Hours Later)

Danny was pretty sure that he didn't really need to sleep anymore, but he was still pleased to know that he did have a bedchamber in the Keep. Just like he was connected to the Ghost Zone, he was also connected to Phantom's Keep and knew his way around pretty much from the start. So there was no need to bother any of the servants asking them to lead him to his room.

Now that he had a few moments just to think, he could hardly believe what had happened that day. The ritual had been one of the most mentally-demanding tests he'd ever taken, but it had accepted him as the Ghost King. Him, one who was not even fully ghost.

Sure, there had been 'questions' he'd gotten wrong in the ritual, but the Crown had put all the correct knowledge into his head near the end of the ritual. It felt he had the right character, and now he had the knowledge.

Of course, he didn't expect himself to be perfect. So even before he turned to plans for his coronation, he'd made preliminary appointments to his Ghost Council. Of course, Clockwork and Thanatos was a given, and they had all ready accepted. He had also planned on inviting Frostbite, Dora, and Pandora, but had not received an answer back from them. There was a few ghosts that Clockwork had suggested whom Danny had never met before, and he had promised to consider them. The hardest part was putting aside old feelings and thinking who deserved to be on the Council even among his enemies. Right now he was leaning towards inviting Walker. Despite Danny's numerous run-ins with Walker, he knew that the Warden's job was very important to the functioning of the Ghost Zone. Who knows, maybe Danny could work on minimizing the corruption of the ghost jail if he worked closer with the Warden? Besides, he needed at least one person on the Council who was not his friend. The point of the Council was to guide him, not be his 'yes-men', or 'yes-ghosts' as the case may be.

It was no surprise that the King's chambers were the largest private chambers in the Keep. Danny had seen the room that the servants had set Tucker up in, and had been pretty impressed. But the King's Chamber was easily the most impressive.

A large central living area, complete with couches, chairs, and a writing desk. Danny glanced up and gasped in shock. The connection that linked him to the Keep had really taken the mainly black and white color scheme and created something that was specifically targeted at him. The ceiling was made out of swirling onyx and studded with diamonds in a perfect replica of the human night sky. He could even spot familiar constellations and the larger, brighter stars were made from larger diamonds. Taking a closer look, he realized that not all of the gems were diamonds. They were gems that matched the color of the star they represented.

He eventually managed to pull himself away from the ceiling and began to explore some of the doors that led off the central chamber. A private library, a washroom, an empty room that was perhaps waiting for his personalized attention, and then the final door which led to the bedroom.

He opened the door and nearly tripped over his own feet, staring in shock at the sight that lay before him.

Well… he had found Sam, she was sitting on the large four-poster bed, giving him a sultry gaze… and also completely nude. It was a pretty good thing that ghosts could not phase through things normally in the Ghost Zone, or Danny would probably be on his way to the dungeons right at that moment. "S—Sam!" Danny gasped.

"I've been waiting for you." She said, sitting up and giving him a good, long look at her perfect body which made his mouth go dry.

"I thought… Thanatos said… you were in a guest..." He could barely get the words out.

"Just a little lie." Sam said. "But that's okay because I'd rather be right here with you. So are you going to keep standing in the doorway, or are you going to join me on the bed?"

That knocked Danny out of his state of shock. He kicked the door shut behind him and began struggling with his suit, which was made more complicated by the cape. Finally giving up, he simply phased out of his clothes and joined Sam on the bed.

She pulled him closer and pulled him into a passionate kiss. "Are you..."

"I'm sure." Sam laughed against his mouth. "Do you really think I would do something like this if I were not sure?"

Danny smiled. "I love you, Sam."

As they embraced, Sam realized something. "You're still in your ghost form." She said, running her fingers through his snow-white hair.

"Do you want me to change?" Danny asked.

After a brief kiss, Sam laughed under her breath. "No."


	8. The Coronation

**Chapter VIII: The Coronation**

* * *

Clockwork had set everything up so that Danny's official coronation would happen two weeks after the Ritual took place. Of course, Danny was all ready the official King of the Ghost Zone, but since the Ritual itself was an intensely private ceremony, the coronation was more an excuse for all the ghosts to meet their new king if they wanted.

But, really, Danny was looking forward to seeing his parents and sister again. He hadn't seen his parents since he left for Clockwork's two weeks ago, and he hadn't seen his sister for nearly that long. Tucker had volunteered to go retrieve them in the Specter Speeder. And, after making sure they were bringing no weapons what-so-ever into the Ghost Zone (it took a while for Jack), Tucker flew them back.

While royal protocol typically demanded that Danny wait to receive guests in the throne room, he decided that his parents could be the exception to that rule. So when the elder Fentons stepped into Phantom's Keep for the first time, Danny was all ready waiting for them in the antechamber.

"Mom, Dad!" He fell on them almost instantly, wrapping them both in an embrace.

"Oh, Danny, just look at you!" Maddie said, tears filling her eyes. It really said something that, up until just a few weeks ago, she had no idea that her son was Phantom. And now she was here embracing him with no reservations at all. He had not turned back into a human for nearly the entire time he'd been in the Ghost Zone. After all, that form was no longer needed as a disguise.

"We are so proud of you, son!" Jack nearly crushed his son with an embrace. "And thank you for letting us come here even with… no equipment… there's so much we can learn about the Ghost Zone! For example… is everything we see made of ectoplasm?"

"Pretty much." Danny said. "But watch yourselves. In the Ghost Zone, it's humans who are the ghosts. You can phase through things here."

"Really?" And, with that, Jack disappeared through a wall.

Maddie gave her son a once-over. "I can't believe how much you've changed since you left."

"A ghost's form changes with the amount of ectoplasm it has. You've always known that." Danny said.

"Yes, but Phantom… I mean… your ghost form has always seemed to stay grounded in your human appearance." Maddie said. "The cape is completely understandable, but you look like..."

"He's been hitting the gym?" Tucker finished.

"My human form changed in that way too." Danny said. "But now I also glow as a human, and my eyes stay green, so I've pretty much been existing in my ghost form for the past few weeks."

Jazz walked over to him and embraced him. "How have things been going?" Jazz asked.

"You mean besides planning this coronation and trying to decide which ghosts to have as members of my Council?" Danny asked. "Not much..."

"Danny and Sam are engaged now." Tucker spilled the beans. They had told him about Danny's proposal the day after the Ritual, but thankfully he had no idea that Sam had spent nearly every night that she was able to get away from the human world in Danny's bedchambers. In fact, the room that had been set up for her had not been entered once.

"Really, Danny?" Maddie squealed excitedly.

"Yeah, we are. But the wedding is not going to be for several months yet." Danny said.

"Is… that allowed?" Maddie asked. "I know that you are half-ghost, but can Sam be the ghost queen and still be human?"

"She's going to be my Princess-Consort." Danny explained. "She'll have the rank of a Princess, but be legally married to me."

And speak of the devil… Sam had heard the commotion and walked into the antechamber, leading Jack with her. Danny remembered the time she had entered that beauty contest. While all the other girls fawned over being a princess, Sam had used it to make a statement. But now that she was an actual princess in all but name, it seemed to suit her remarkably well.

Well, her being at ease probably had more to do that she was a future princess of the ghost realm, so she could get away with her largely black and Gothic wardrobe. She didn't hate dresses and dressing up. She just hated the pink monstrosities that her mother had bought her. She was wearing a black and purple dress that was not too far removed from the one she'd worn to her first high school dance, but with less fish-net stockings and more silk.

"Sam! Tucker just told us that you and Danny are getting married!" Maddie embraced the young woman warmly.

"Married? My little boy? I always knew this day would come." Jack said, wiping away a happy tear. "Welcome to the family, Sam, we always knew you'd be a Fenton one day!"

Sam smiled. "I'm glad to join the family." She said. And she was, no sarcasm. The Fentons had always treated her better than her own parents. They might not completely understand her, but they always allowed her to be herself with no judgment. And that meant all the world for her.

"Well, the coronation will start in a few hours. I'll have someone take you up to your rooms." He didn't even have to call out for a servant. The great thing about them being ectoplasm constructs is that all he had to do was think that he needed a servant and one would appear. It appeared out of nowhere and bowed to him. "Please take my parents and sister to two of our guest rooms." He told the servant. It bowed and began to lead the Fentons into the upper floors.

Once they were gone, Sam turned her attention to Danny. She walked up to him, straightening out his cape so that it folded nicely on his shoulders. "Are you nervous?" She asked.

"Me? Ha! No way! The test was the hard part. Everyone knows that this coronation is more of a formality than anything." Danny answered.

"So you are nervous." Sam read his mood correctly. "Now every ghost in the Ghost Zone knows that you are king, even your enemies."

Danny sighed. "It's not like there has been a revolt or anything. All the ghosts pretty much know not to challenge the king. But that doesn't mean they are all happy about me being king. I doubt I'm going to make it one month before some ghost challenges me for the throne. And there is one person I'm worried about..." Danny trailed off.

"Vlad?" Sam asked.

"I _know_ that he was after the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage during the whole Pariah Dark thing. I know that he wanted to become the new Ghost King, and I doubt he'll sit quietly and allow me to become the king without a fight."

"You were the one who beat Pariah Dark, not Vlad. The Crown of Fire choose you, not Vlad." Sam said. "And with these two artifacts..." She held his hand, turning it so they could see the Ring of Rage on his finger. "Even Vlad should think twice about challenging you to anything."

"Vlad backing off?" Danny questioned. "That might be the worst option of all." He did not elaborate further, so Sam quietly set to work on helping him get ready.

* * *

(The Coronation)

For the most part, everything went fine. On this day, at least, there were no challenges to his kingship. And all the ghosts, friend and foe alike, joined in on the chant "Long Reign the Ghost King!"

It was after the coronation ceremony at the banquet that everything started to go downhill. Ghosts, of course, did not need to eat food to exist since they could survive purely on the ectoplasm in their environment, but they could still find pleasure in eating food.

Danny had really only been pulled away from his friends and family for a moment when his archenemy swooped in on him.

"Good day, King Daniel." Vlad Plasmius said with an elegant bow. "A fine day for a coronation, wouldn't you say?"

Danny glared at him. "What do you want, Vlad?"

"Simply to congratulate you, dear boy." Vlad answered.

"And here I was expecting you to start a fight." Danny said. "I know that you wanted to be the Ghost King since the fight with Pariah Dark."

"I'm ambitious, not stupid." Vlad said. "And your transparent attempt to bait me into challenging you will not work. You and I both know how that will turn out, and I'm not interested in playing your games any longer." Vlad put his arm around Danny's shoulder and pulled him close so that only the king could hear his words. "You see, Daniel, as I'm sure you've figured out by now… you have all the power of the Ghost Zone at your command, but now you're buried under a veritable mountain of royal protocol on how and when to actually use that power. Unless I challenge you directly or threaten the existence of either the Ghost Zone or the human world, there is literally nothing you can do against me."

 _Shit. Shit. Shit._ Danny grumbled to himself. So Vlad knew? And that was a major problem.

"Even our little scuffles are a thing of the past now." Vlad said with a smile. "It used to be just a spat between two halfas, but we can't have the king fighting against his own subjects any time he wishes. Not that I consider myself your subject, mind you."

"You are a half-ghost." Danny reminded him.

"But also half-human. And a halfa that resides permanently in the human world." Vlad said. "So you can keep the kingship of the Ghost Zone. It no longer matters to me. Now that you have the Ghost Zone to look after, you no longer have any claim on the affairs of the human world."

"Maybe not." Danny conceded. "But remember, Vlad, if you do overstep your bounds and threaten either world, I would then be free to face you with all the might of the Ghost Zone behind me."

"Why ever would I threaten the world that I have every intention of ruling?" Vlad asked. "Don't worry, the human world will be in safe hands, I assure you."

"What is the Wisconsin Ghost doing here?" Both of the halfas looked around and saw that Jack was glaring daggers at the elder halfa. Maddie was just behind him with a similar look on her face.

Vlad stared at them in shock. "Perhaps the better question would be why are humans here?"

"Ah, Plasmius, have you met my parents?" Danny asked, giving him a grin.

"Parents?" Vlad asked, looking between the young man and his parents in shock. Danny was definitely in his Phantom form, and neither of the elder Fentons refuted his claim. So that could only mean that Danny had told his parents the truth about himself and they had accepted him as a halfa. And, from the look that Danny was giving him right now, Vlad knew that if he pushed the halfa any further, he would not hesitate to reveal his own secret to the elder Fentons. "Then don't allow me to take up any more of your time. Good day, your Majesty." Vlad said with a bow and then walked away.

"Is everything all right?" Maddie asked.

"It's… it's fine." Danny said. "Just an old enemy." But Danny couldn't stop thinking about Vlad's threats, because they were threats. And he knew that the only reason that Vlad had basically told Danny his plans was because they both knew he couldn't do anything about it.

Right now, the only thing he could hope was that Vlad would overstep himself in whatever way he was planning to make the human world his, giving him the right to step in. But would he? Vlad might be a fruitloop, but he was a smart fruitloop.

It could be years before he slipped up in whatever he was planning. Taking over the human world? Danny couldn't imagine how it could be done. The human world was not like the Ghost Zone with a centralized government. How could Vlad possibly think he could gain control over nearly two hundred independent countries?

As he looked around at the masses of ghosts that filled up the throne room, Danny knew what he had to do. He walked through the room towards the throne. Many of the ghosts turned and watched as Danny sat down on the throne, but he hardly noticed their stares. Whatever Vlad had planned, Danny would be ready. He would be waiting.

A Ghost herald spoke loudly when Danny took his seat, drawing the attention of every ghost in the room. "All hail, His Majesty, Daniel Phantom, King of Ghosts; Hades, Lord of the Infinite Realms; Lord of the Afterlife! Long Reign the Ghost King!"

* * *

 **END OF PART ONE**


	9. As The Years Go By

**LES: First, let me just say that I'm so happy with the reviews I've gotten for the first part. I spent the whole of last week (minus the time I spent at work. Yuck.) writing it. I've been worried about posting it though because it's been a whopping four years since I last wrote fan fiction, and I'm so out of practice. Basically, don't be afraid to give me constructive criticism. After four years, I've probably (definitely) lost some of my old touch with fan fiction. I know that my ability to write romance has taken a dive (used to be I could write whole chapters of just romance…) but if there's anything else that you guys think I can improve on, just let me know. Thanks, guys!**

* * *

 **Chapter IX: As The Years Go By**

* * *

(Six Years Later)

For the past several years, things had really flown by. For the most part, Danny had been forced to focus on the Ghost Zone. Pariah Dark had been the King, but he had been locked in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep for so long that many ghosts did not know what the king did.

By far the hardest thing that Danny had to do was regulate travel to the human world via natural portals. He could not stop ghost attacks that were all ready in the human world, but he could reduce the number of violent ghosts breaking out into the human world.

It was the first time in his rule that he had been met with anything resembling a rebellion. Many ghosts were unhappy with the fact that their king was basically trapping them in the Ghost Zone, and he'd had to face a number of challenges to his throne. But the young King Phantom had been able to defeat all comers.

So, five years after taking the throne, the challenges slowed down to a stop and most of the ghosts now accepted that if they wanted to travel to the human world, they were bound by law not to attack the residents.

And it was a good thing that the challenges stopped when they did, because something happened not long after that put some strain in his relationship with his wife, Sam.

Not long after he had married her, she had revealed to him that she knew that he would eventually stop aging and that she didn't want him to suffer through watching her grow old and die while he remained forever in his mid-twenties. She told him that she had plans set up with Thanatos for months to send her peacefully to her afterlife when he stopped aging.

A part of Danny, the part that had passed the test of the Crown of Fire, remembered what the crown had taught him. Human life is temporary. Eventually, Sam would die, and there was nothing that could stop that. But, even still, he was not totally okay with her basically having an assisted suicide.

"You don't have to do this." Danny told her as they lay in his bedchambers after she had told him. He ran his fingers through her hair, nearly paralyzed by his love for her. "Sam, I understand what you are feeling, but I can't ask you or anyone to die for me."

"You don't even have to ask me." Sam replied, pulling him into a kiss. "I want to have a life with you, Danny, even if it is an afterlife. I want to help you and support you, and I can hardly do more than smile and wave as a princess. And, Danny, I want to have a child with you."

Danny sighed. He definitely knew how she felt in that regard. He could not give her a child as a human, but he could create a ghostly child with her. But that would not work unless she were a ghost herself. "I want a child with you too, Sam… but dying for one?"

"Thanatos promised it would be painless, and I believe him. Don't you?" Sam asked.

"Of course I believe him." Danny replied. After Clockwork, Thanatos was one of the ghosts that he really thought of as a friend. In some ways, he was closer to Thanatos than any other ghost because, like him, Thanatos was a halfa. He sighed. "If you want to do this, then I do understand, Sam. Really. The Crown of Fire really beat into my mind how human life is temporary. If you're going to become a ghost, then I will become a full ghost too."

"There's no reason for you to do that." Sam said. "Being a halfa is too much of who you are. Remember what happened when we split you in two?"

Sam didn't say it, but Danny also remembered what had happened when an alternate version of himself got ripped in two. And he knew that Sam was right. He could absolutely not risk himself going crazy from being turned into a full ghost and wielding the power that he had access to. He could end up like Pariah Dark. Hell, the Sarcophagus was still standing in the throne room as a reminder of how he could be taken out.

"Maybe… we could find some way to turn you..." Danny began.

"Into a halfa?" Sam laughed quietly. "You know that the Observants would blow a gasket if you asked permission for another halfa to be created. They are so down on halfas in general that it looks like Thanatos is going to keep his post for the rest of eternity."

He sighed, and kissed her. "Okay. I understand I can't expect them to allow another halfa to be created just because I asked. I guess this is the only way..." He thought back on the vision he had of her as a ghost while under the control of the Crown of Fire. She had been glorious, every inch a ghost queen. He wondered briefly if she would end up looking like she had in his vision.

One thing he knew for sure was that she wouldn't change her personality from it. Whether a ghost kept the same personality as their human self depended almost entirely upon the strength of their spirit. And Sam had one of the strongest spirits he knew.

"When are you going to do it?" Danny asked.

She ran her fingers down his face, gazing at him intently. "You haven't changed in a year." She told him.

Danny sighed. He had known that he had stopped aging several months ago. Twenty-three was the age he'd stay for all time. "I know." He said softly. "I guess you'll want to do this soon?"

She nodded. "There's no point in putting it off." She said.

"Okay." He leaned down over her, pulling her into a passionate and demanding kiss.

"Make love to me." Sam whispered against his mouth. "My last night as a human… show me the very best of humanity."

"As you wish, my love." Danny whispered his reply, transforming back into his now-rarely used human form and pulling her closer to him.

* * *

Overall, it had gone just as Thanatos said it would, quick and absolutely painless. The Spirit of Death had not even needed to draw her blood with the Deathscythe. As soon as the unsheathed blade touched her flesh, Sam unbound spirit rose from her body.

It turned out that Sam's ghostly form was pretty close to the one he'd seen in the visions that the Crown of Fire had given him. She was gloriously beautiful, the strength of her spirit shining through without hindrance from her flesh any longer. In terms of power, she was slightly stronger than other newly formed ghosts, but it would take many years for her to reach her full strength.

Danny rushed forward and pulled her into a tight embrace. In the Ghost Zone, she felt as real as she ever had, but it would take her some practice to keep her body together if she left the ectoplasm-rich environment for the human world.

"Sam? Are you all right?" Danny asked, meeting her eyes with his.

She smiled at him. "I think I'm all right." She said.

It was a strange moment for Danny. On the one hand, the woman that he loved was dead. But, on the other hand, her death had opened the door up to them being together for all eternity.

"I love you, Sam." Danny kissed her, deciding that Sam had wanted him to be happy.

"I love you too." Sam replied.

"Her spirit is remarkably strong." Thanatos commented, looking over her appearance. "It appears that she'll have no issues with keeping her identity and a grasp on her emotions. When she fully matures, she might even transcend to being a spirit!"

"I'll bet you are tired, my queen." Danny said, whispering her new title in her ear. After he had been transformed into Phantom for the first time, Danny had felt so tired that he could barely stand. It had taken him nearly all day to feel better. But that had been because his body was trying to feed on ectoplasm and it could only make due with the trace amounts of ectoplasm that emitted from the portal. In the Ghost Zone, Sam would probably be feeling a lot less tired in a few hours.

"I guess… I'm a little tired." Sam admitted. Danny picked her up, and pressed a tender kiss to her forehead. Thanatos followed Danny as he began to carry Sam up to their room to recover.

Thankfully, Danny was correct, Sam recovered from the experience much faster than he had. Within the ectoplasm-rich environment of the Ghost Zone, her ghost form soaked up ectoplasm. It would take years for a new ghost to reach full power, but she was off to a good start.

And, of course, the two people who were most interested in studying Sam's transition into being a full-fledged ghost was Danny's parents. For the past few years, Danny's parents had been making regular trips into the Ghost Zone for research. No weapons, of course. But, even still, they had trouble talking to ghosts because of their history of being trigger-happy ghost hunters. But, thankfully, Sam was familiar with them and allowed them to ask their questions.

"Have you noticed any changes to your emotional state?" Maddie asked.

"Well, some of my emotions seem to have dimmed." Sam answered thoughtfully. "But most of my emotions seem to have stayed about the same. I still love Danny just as much as I did when I was alive, but I suppose it could have something to do with the fact that I died for love."

"So that means that you'll be able to give us some grandchildren? Um… grandghosts?" Jack asked. "Well, they'll be Fentons either way!"

"Yes. Danny and I do want to have a child together." Sam said.

Danny, who was walking past, stopped abruptly when he heard the conversation turn to children. He grinned to himself and floated up behind his parents with a sly grin on his face. "If you're so interested in us having a child, do you want to watch us make one?"

Both Maddie and Jack stared at him in shock. "Are you… serious?" Jack asked.

"I don't think I want to take scientific investigation… that far." Maddie said with a disturbed look on her face.

Danny and Sam both burst out laughing. "Jeez, mom, ghosts reproduce differently from humans. There's no physical contact."

"Oh… oh… well, that sounds very interesting." Maddie said, blushing.

"But not yet. Sam's ghostly core needs to mature for a few more weeks." Danny said. Before anyone could say anything else, Tucker ran into the room. "Tucker? Where did you come from?" Danny asked, shocked. His parents had come in the Specter Speeder.

"Clockwork brought me." Tucker said, rushing up to Danny. "Dude, we've got a problem. A massive problem!"

"What? What's wrong?" Danny asked.

"You're not going to like it." Tucker said, passing Danny his cellphone. Danny took the phone and glanced at the screen, and he almost dropped the phone in shock.

The phone was on a news website, and he couldn't stop staring at the headline.

Wisconsin Billionaire Vladimir Masters announces his plans to run for the President of the United States of America.

* * *

 **LES: I'm sorry, my current events is showing.**


	10. What Can We Do?

**LES: I just realized that I need to clear something up. And it's in regard to Thanatos' birth. Yes, I'm going into that. Mainly because he's a natural-born halfa, and I'm made it so that humans and ghosts can't breed together. Thankfully, this does have an easy solution. Not long after I discovered DP, I discovered that there are stories about a mythical creature called a cambion, half human/half ghost. Cambions are created when a demon called an incubus/succubus breeds with a human. Sometimes an incubus/succubus is classified as a ghost, and sometimes as a demon. So in my DP fan fiction world, an Incubus/Succubus is a demon that can breed with humans, since that's the whole point of their haunting. Thanatos' mother was human, and his father was a demon, and that's how natural halfas are born.**

* * *

 **Chapter X: What Can We Do?**

* * *

Jack and Maddie watched their son in confusion as he stared down at Tucker's phone. Unbeknownst to his parents, Danny's mind was racing a million miles an hour. In order to avoid provoking Vlad, Danny had not revealed the other halfa's secret to his parents. Winning Maddie for himself was Vlad's obsession, and Danny knew what happened to ghosts if they lost their obsession. If Danny revealed Vlad's secret to his parents, thereby ridding any chance Vlad had at his mother, he would graduate from fruitloop to full-blown psychopath.

His first thought was to find some way to reveal Vlad Masters to the world and just deal with whatever fallout happened. But the idea was quickly dismissed. Right now he could predict Vlad's plans. If he unhinged the elder halfa, there would be no predicting him.

There was also royal protocol to consider. Technically, Vlad was not putting the world in danger by running. He'd said as much the last time they met face-to-face. Vlad wasn't interested in destroying the world. He just wanted to rule it. There was the small possibility that Vlad had changed in the past several years. After all, in all that time he had not made one single attempt on Jack Fenton's life.

The last thing to consider was that, unlike the Ghost Zone, America was a democracy. If Vlad won, it wasn't like Danny or anyone else could waltz into the White House, challenge the halfa to a fight, and take the title of President by combat. If the people voted for him, there would be literally nothing Danny could do unless he overstepped his bounds. And the Vlad he knew was too smart to do something like that.

"When is the election?" Danny asked Tucker in a low voice, making sure his parents could not hear.

"Next year." Tucker answered quietly. "Danny, what are we going to do?"

"Right now? Nothing." Danny sighed. Tucker's eyes widened in shock, and he opened his mouth to start arguing with Danny, but quieted from the look Danny gave him.

The young king turned to his parents and said, "I'm sorry, but I need to talk to Tucker in private."

"Oh… of course, Danny." Maddie said, taking her husband's arm and leading him away. "Maybe we can find another ghost to answer our questions."

The door shut behind them and Danny turned to face Tucker. "I'm sorry, Tucker. I know that you want me to fly in there with an army and stop Vlad from running for president. But there's nothing I can do."

"Nothing you can do?" Tucker repeated. "You could expose him! That fruitloop is a giant hypocrite! He's running a largely anti-ghost campaign!"

"But I can't expose him." Danny said. "As much as we make fun of Vlad for being a fruitloop, he's not completely unhinged. He'll keep an iron grip on his sanity as long as the possibility of winning my mother's heart remains. Without that holding him in check, there is no predicting what he'd do."

"So, what, you're just going to sit back and let Vlad the Fruitloop become the leader of the free world?" Tucker asked in shock.

Danny sighed. "Being the king doesn't mean that I can get my way all the time." He said. "I've all ready done more to protect humanity than any ghost king before me. I might be able to do more, but I have to be very careful." He met Tucker's eyes. "A king is nothing without his people. There are many ghosts who are suspicious of me because I am half human. I've been challenged by many of them, but there are still more out there; powerful ghosts who might be able to challenge even me. If I make it seem like I'm favoring humanity over ghosts, my reign would probably end within the month."

"Damn, man, talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place." Tucker sighed. "But, seriously, dude, I don't think I can live in an America run by a fruitloop! Could you… make me one of your subjects? You know, like Sam?"

"What? No! No way, Tucker!" Danny growled. "Do you know how hard it was for me to stand there and watch Sam die? I'm not going to stand around and watch that happen to you too! Besides, he's just running. That doesn't mean he'll win. He'll have to have more than an anti-ghost platform, right? That sort of thing might work in Amity Park, but the closest that a majority of Americans have come to ghosts is non-intelligent ectoplasm imprint in the creepy house down the street."

"Oh, yeah… living in Amity Park, I've kind of forgotten that ghost attacks are not a big deal everywhere else. Really the only thing that most Americans have wondered about ghosts for the past few years is what happened to Phantom."

"Yeah… I guess I did disappear abruptly." Danny admitted. "And, speaking of disappearing…?"

"Danny Fenton is currently in Japan, studying what makes Japanese ghosts particularly violent." Tucker said.

"They are not particularly more violent." Danny answered calmly. "But their culture is more spiritual, so they are slightly more powerful on average. So when a Japanese ghost has a grudge against a human, they have more power to act upon it."

"And Sam has decided that she's tired of the city. She's currently living on a distant mountain, completely off the grid." Tucker said.

"And away from the government." Danny said. "So, besides Vlad, how are things going in the human world?"

"Well, the Guys in White tried to get the current president to enact more anti-ecto legislation. But the United Nations stepped in and..." Tucker trailed off.

"Tuck?" Danny asked, concerned.

"Dude! That's it! That's it!" Tucker yelled excitedly, pumping his fist in the air. "Danny! America might be heading in an anti-ecto way, but the majority of the world feels that if ghosts have intelligence and sentience, they should have the rights of a human being! You would not have to confront Vlad directly, and it would give the world as a whole a better view of ghosts. It might even allow you to relax some of your travel regulations that pissed off so many ghosts!"

"Tucker, what are you saying?" Danny asked.

"Diplomacy!" Tucker said, grabbing Danny by the shoulders. "Open diplomatic relations between earth and the Ghost Zone!"

"Okay, wait. That's something that's never been done." Danny began.

"But it doesn't mean that it can't." Tucker said. "You can let Vlad run, and rant and rave about being anti-ghost all he wants! You wouldn't even have to talk about him at all. Just show the world what ghosts are really like! Show that you've got culture, intelligence, and that ghosts have feelings too!"

Danny was catching on. "Most Americans have never even seen a ghost. So their fear will make them more inclined to believe Vlad… but if I show them that ghosts aren't like that at all..."

"They won't be afraid and less likely to swallow Vlad's lies!" Tucker finished. "Am I a genius or what?!"

"You're a genius!" Danny said, embracing him. "Yes… yes… I think this could work..."

"So, does that mean you're leaving the Ghost Zone?" Tucker asked.

"I suppose so." Danny said. "I guess I can't ask any world leaders to come here. They might see the invitation as a threat."

"We should get Jazz on this plan." Tucker said. "You'll probably have to make some sort of speech eventually and no one does speeches like Jazz does."

"She's out of college now, right?" Danny asked.

Tucker nodded. "You know she doesn't live in Amity Park anymore, but I know she'll come rushing back if she heard that her brother is coming out of the Ghost Zone to try to convince humanity's leaders that ghosts are not a threat."

"God, I haven't seen Jazz in… years." Danny said, and he suddenly felt awful. "Yes, I'll definitely have to bring Jazz in."

"And what about Sam? Bring Team Phantom back together!" Tucker said.

"Sam… might have to sit out on this one, at first, at least." Danny said. "She's not entirely used to being a ghost, let alone a ghost in the human world. That's the one thing I can't teach from experience. My human half was always able to keep my ghost form together in the human world, but she'll need to do it herself. Besides..." He sighed. "I should be the only ghost to go at first. It will be hard to overcome my being the Ghost King, but if I showed up with anything resembling an army..."

"Good point." Tucker said.

"I suppose I'll start in Amity Park. At least they are familiar with me." Danny said, holding out his hand and opening a portal into the human world.

"Whoa! Are you going right now?" Tucker asked.

"The only thing I plan to do is be seen and let Amity Park know that I'm back." Danny said. "This should not take too long." So Danny stepped through the portal and back into the human world for the first time in years.


	11. Back In The Human World

**LES: Sorry for the long wait, everyone. I had family visiting from out of town this weekend and let's just say that I'm the only introvert in the family, and things got rowdy. Over three days, I probably only got about eight hours of sleep and was too mentally frazzled to write anything. There is some language in this chapter.  
**

* * *

 **Chapter XI: Back In The Human World**

* * *

For a while, Danny could only stare around in shock. After six years of being exclusively in the Ghost Zone, it was strange to be back in the human world. He realized it was the middle of the day, which was good for his needs. It would have been useless to come to the human world in the middle of the night. After all, this time, he wanted to be seen.

That ended up not being a problem. Almost as soon as he appeared in the skies over Amity Park, he could hear several ecto-sensors pick up on him and start an alarm.

He started to float closer to the ground so that people would see him, but then he stopped in his tracks. He hadn't even realized that someone had shot at him. In fact, the only thing that tipped him off about being shot at was that he was suddenly in the middle of an explosion. The explosion didn't even faze him, he was just too powerful for whatever weapon had been fired at him.

All of his old instincts to protect the town kicked in and he stopped descending. Instead, he shot higher into the sky, drawing the fire of whatever was shooting at him up into the sky instead of risking the buildings or the people.

Once he was well above the city, he stopped and hovered in the air, waiting for whatever had ambushed him. He was not too shocked to see that it was Valerie Gray, also known as the Red Huntress. After all, he never did get the chance to tell her the truth. He was shocked, however, to see that while she was older now (more closely resembling the Valerie he had seen in the alternate future), she still wore the same look of absolute loathing on her face as she glared at him.

"I knew you would return one day, Phantom!" She growled, aiming a ecto-bazooka right at his face. There was a bright flash of green light and powerful ectoplasm beam hit on target right between his eyes. Danny had to admit, unlike the first blast, he actually felt the impact. But it was not nearly strong enough to hurt him.

When the smoke cleared, Valerie was left staring at him in shock, her mouth hanging open. "Okay, what the fuck is going on with you?" She demanded. "That blast would have seriously hurt even a ghost ranked level 10 on the ectoplasm scale! I guessed you retreated back into the Ghost Zone to gain more power, but this is impossible!"

For a while, Danny didn't answer. "Are you going to let me answer, or would you rather keep shooting me?" He asked.

Valerie glared at him, her face twisted with hatred. "God damn you!" She growled, stowing the bazooka away.

For a few moments, the two old enemies said nothing to each other. And then Danny slowly approached her. Valerie grew tense as he drew near, but didn't bother reaching for any of her weapons. If Phantom was powerful enough to survive a point-blank shot from her charged up bazooka, there was nothing in her arsenal that could stop him.

"Don't! Don't come any closer!" Valerie yelled, and Danny stopped in his tracks.

"Valerie. I have never once physically hurt you. I'm not about to start now." Danny told her.

"But you have hurt me, you monster!" Valerie yelled.

"Yes, emotionally. I don't deny it." Danny replied. "But that was almost ten years ago. In that time, I've gone through more changes than just my power and my appearance. I'm not going to hurt you. Just listen to me."

To Danny's shock, Valerie suddenly seemed to give out. Her knees collapsed and she fell down on her sled, screaming as tears ran down her face. "Don't you do this to me! Don't pretend that you've done nothing else to me for the past ten years!" She screamed at him.

"Valerie, what are you…?" Danny began to ask.

"Where's Danny Fenton?" She screamed at him. "What the fuck have you done with him? And Sam too! No one in this damn town knows for sure what has happened, and every time I ask their parents, I always receive the same bullshit answers! Abroad? Took off for the mountains?! Neither of them would have just up and left like that! You were so-called 'friends' with both of them! I know you had something to do with their disappearance!" She pulled out her bazooka again and began to blast him, over and over and over.

Danny made no attempt at dodging or shielding himself. He wordlessly took every blast without complaint. It didn't hurt him, and he could feel from her raging emotions that she needed to get this out.

After several minutes of non-stop blasts, the bazooka itself gave out. It overheated and refused to fire anymore. She glared up at him, saw that he was non-the-worse for wear for the blasting she just gave him, and burst into tears anew.

"Valerie. Danny and Sam are safe." He said. "I know that you feel no reason to trust me, but I swear on every dimension that they are safe."

Valerie continued to glare at him. "Prove it!"

Danny sighed. "I can prove to you that Danny Fenton is safe. And then perhaps you'll believe me about Sam."

"Not likely, spook." Valerie growled.

"At least hear my story." Danny said. "You'll need to know why I've been gone these past six years to understand what happened to Danny Fenton." When she didn't respond, Danny took that as a sign to continue. "Six years ago, the old Ghost King Pariah Dark faded away into oblivion. The Ghost Zone was on the verge of collapse, and the Infinite Realms needed a new Ghost King. As it turned out, since I was the one who defeated Pariah Dark, I was the front runner to become the new Ghost King."

"So you..." Valerie gasped when she noticed that he was wearing the Crown of Fire upon his head.

"Yes, I became the new Ghost King six years ago." Danny said. "That's why I haven't returned to Amity Park in six years. I've been in the Ghost Zone this whole time being its ruler."

"I suppose that's a little interesting." Valerie admitted. "But I don't see what this has to do with Danny."

"I'll get to that, but I won't say here." Danny said, looking around. He got his wish, and news helicopters were starting to converge on his position. "Listen, Valerie, I'm going to make you invisible so that we can get away from the news helicopters. I swear that's all." He slowly floated towards her, and as soon as he was in range, he transferred his invisibility over to her. Thank God he had learned how to do this without being in physical contact with the object he was transferring power to, as he knew Valerie would never tolerate him touching her.

Down below was what looked like an abandoned building. _Good enough._ Danny thought to himself. He motioned for Valerie to follow him, and he phased them both inside the building.

"Wait here." He said, turning intangible and quickly checking every single room of the building to make sure they were alone. He also allowed his ectoplasm spread out a little from his body. A little-known property of ectoplasm is that it could react to electromagnetism, so by extending his ectoplasm, he could search the building for electronic listening equipment. But the only equipment he found was Valerie's. _Sorry, Val._ Danny thought to himself, using his ectoplasm to latch onto the battery that feed Valerie's recording equipment and drain the battery of its energy completely. He would return the power once they were done talking.

Before Valerie could realize that her recording equipment was no longer working, Danny phased back into the room and landed on the floor. "So, why all the secrecy?" Valerie asked.

"Why all the secrecy surrounding one of the most important secrets in either realm?" Danny corrected.

"Danny is a good person, but I can hardly see him being involved with a secret like that." Valerie commented.

"Not on purpose, but life has a way of surprising you." Danny said. "I will tell you where Danny Fenton is, but first I have to have your word that you will never tell anyone what I'm about to tell you."

Valerie glared at him for a minute. "Please. Just look at me. I know the value of keeping a secret."

Not that she would have any proof with her recording equipment drained of energy. Danny sighed. "There was a reason that I had to tell you about my becoming the Ghost King. You were always very smart, Val, so I'm sure that the reason you connected me to Danny Fenton's disappearance is because we disappeared at the same time. To be honest, I'm a little shocked that very few people seemed to realize it. But Danny Fenton had to disappear. Before that moment, he could still hide the truth in the human world, but after that moment, hiding became impossible."

"I don't… understand what you are trying to say." Valerie said.

"When I put on the Crown of Fire, it filled my body with so much ectoplasm that I could no longer hide it in my human form." Phantom said. Valerie noticed the change. Previously, he had been referring to Danny Fenton in the third person, but now he had changed to the first person.

Combined with her knowledge of Vlad Master's true identity and knowing the Phantom's cousin was half-human, that was all she needed to piece it together. "Oh my God, no! Please tell me that the truth isn't what I think it is..." Valerie gasped, horrified.

Phantom lowered his eyes and a bright iridescent ring of light formed around his waist, sweeping over his body and changing him in the process. His outfit stayed the same, due to having long outgrown his old human clothes. To Valerie's eyes, the only real change was in Phantom's hair and skin tone. Besides the outfit, the ghostly glow, and the green eyes, she knew that Danny Fenton stood in front of her.

"This is as human as I can appear. I hope you can see why I couldn't remain in the human world like this."

For the second time, Valerie's legs gave out and she fell to the floor. "I can't believe this… I can't believe this..." She gasped, on the verge of hyperventilating.

"Valerie?" Danny asked, approaching her slowly, concerned for her.

"I'm such an idiot." She seemed to be on the verge of laughing hysterically, or crying. Danny was not sure which. "I broke up with you… to hunt you… to protect you from yourself. I am such an idiot!"

"I'm so sorry, Valerie." Danny said, changing back into his ghost form.

"Who else knows?" Valerie asked. "Tucker and Sam, obviously."

Danny nodded. "My sister knows, and so does William Lancer. They found out on their own. I told my parents just before I left."

"Not even your parents knew…?" Valerie gasped. "Why did you let your parents and I hunt you like that? I told you when I helped you rescue Dani, I won't take part in destroying a human. And your parents..."

"They've forgiven me for keeping my condition a secret." Danny said. "Now they make regular trips to my castle in the Ghost Zone to study ghosts and our culture. By now they probably know more about ghosts than any ghost researcher in the world."

"Sam?" Valerie asked. "I believe you that she's safe, but where is she?"

Danny sighed. "I got married to Sam several years ago. At first, she traveled back and forth between the human world and Ghost Zone regularly. Now she has decided to stay in the Ghost Zone with me." Danny didn't want to tell Valerie that Sam was a full ghost now, but the Huntress was too smart for that.

"So… she's dead?" Valerie asked.

Danny froze and fixed a glare on Valerie. "Yes… she's a full ghost now. But for the sake of our friendship I'll warn you to not think about coming after her. I _will_ protect her from anyone, even you." Valerie stared in shock at his now glowing eyes.

"I won't seek her out, but if she starts to cause trouble..." Valerie began.

"She won't." Danny said firmly. "She is all ready on her way to transcending above being an average ghost. She'll be a spirit."

"What's the difference?" Valerie asked.

"An average ghost is either a being created directly out of the ectoplasm of the Ghost Zone or the imprint of a recently-deceased human in ectoplasm. Ghosts are self-aware, and are capable of intelligence, but are hindered in the fact that they are ruled by an obsession. The obsession is sometimes so strong that it can lead to the ghost turning aggressive in the pursuit of its obsession. But when a ghost is created from a substantial amount of ectoplasm or the person who left the imprint has a particularly strong inner spirit, they become a spirit instead. Spirits are like ghosts for the most part, however, they tend to be far stronger and the strength of their personality overrides the normal need for an obsession. Of course, spirits can be aggressive as well, but they tend towards non-aggression. And in the case of humans becoming spirits upon their deaths, they always keep the temperament they had before death. You remember Sam. She might have had a small temper, but she wasn't violent or aggressive."

"If you say so." Valerie said. "So what brings you to the human world. I assume it has to do with Vlad Masters?"

"So… you know?" Danny asked.

Valerie nodded. "After Dani left, after we rescued her, I went back to check on Masters. I saw him transform."

"Does he know that you know?" Danny asked.

Valerie shook her head. "I don't think so. He still occasionally sends me ghost weaponry, but not nearly as often as before. And he hasn't contacted me with any sort of task for years."

"And speaking of that whole incident, could you answer a question of mine?" Danny asked, and Valerie nodded. "Do you know where Dani is?"

"You don't know?" Valerie asked.

"If she came into the Ghost Zone, I would know in an instant. But she has chosen to stay in the human realm. As you've probably guessed I'm a little out-of-touch with goings on in the human realm. I haven't seen Dani in years. She might not even know that I'm the king."

"I'm sorry, but I haven't heard anything about her." Valerie said. "She's obviously keeping a much lower profile than you ever could."

"Jazz calls it my hero complex."

"So… when are we going after Plasmius?" Valerie asked.

Danny sighed. "I'm afraid it's not that simple. "Even if I were not the Ghost King, I couldn't attack a man running for the highest office in America. And I can't expose him to the world because he'll go completely insane if I do."

Valerie sighed. "I guess that makes sense. So what are you doing here?"

"Getting a head-start on Vlad." Danny said. "I can't oppose him directly, but I can oppose him indirectly. I'm here to start opening diplomatic relations between the human world and Ghost Zone."

"And what will that accomplish?" Valerie asked.

Danny met her eyes. "Hopefully, showing humanity that ghosts are not monsters." He could hear news helicopters circling overhead, looking for him. "Listen, Valerie, I have to go. But can you do me one favor before I leave?"

"Sure."

"I highly doubt that my… cousin has stayed in America after Vlad's announcement. If I were her, I would be as far away from America as I can. I don't know the full extent of your ability to track ghosts, but if you wouldn't mind keeping an eye out for her…?"

"My ghost hunting equipment is not that good. I don't think anyone's is." Valerie said. "But if she comes into the state, I'll know."

"Well, if you find her, just tell her that she can come into the Ghost Zone with me. I'll keep her safe there. It doesn't matter how she gets into the Ghost Zone, either a natural portal or through the Fenton Portal, I'll know as soon as she enters and will find her."

"Of course, I'll let her know." Valerie said. "But, one more small question before you go…?"

"Of course."

"Is she really your cousin?" Valerie asked.

Danny sighed. "Technically she's a failed clone of me. Vlad made her and several other clones in an attempt to create a perfect clone of me."

"If she's a clone of you, why is she female?" Valerie asked, confused.

"I have no idea. Only Vlad would know that." Danny said. "I'm sorry, Valerie, but I have to go now." Just before he left, he returned the energy to Valerie's battery pack, getting it back up to one hundred percent as a gift, and then phased up through the ceiling.

Once again, he hovered in the air, and the helicopters were on him almost instantly. As soon as they got close, he began flying towards city hall. In the middle of the air was not the best place to talk to the cameras, so he was heading to a place where they could safely land and they could talk. He would occasionally pause and wait for the helicopters to catch up before taking off again. He could fly much faster than they could, after all.

* * *

(Casper High, Mr. Lancer's English Classroom)

As per usual in Mr. Lancer's English class, half of the classroom was asleep and the other half was well on their way. After all, only the most resilient of students could resist being bored from Shakespeare. However, even Mr. Lancer noticed when his students suddenly became more attentive. Just not on him.

The teacher sighed. Despite school rules forbidding the use of cellphones in classrooms, it could never be completely enforced. Pretty much every student was now glancing at their phones and around at each other in shock.

"And may I ask what has everyone staring at their cellphones?" Mr. Lancer asked, shocking his students.

"Sir… it's just…" One of the students spoke, holding up her phone which was open on Twitter. "The local news Twitter feed says that Phantom has been spotted over Amity Park again."

"Danny Phantom? Really?" Mr. Lancer asked. In the past six years, his former student was never far from his mind. He had kept his promise that he'd made to Danny Fenton when the young man told him his secret. He'd never spoken about it with anyone, even the boy's parents even though he was ninety-nine percent sure the Fentons knew about their son. Unfortunately, that also cut him off from everyone who knew of Danny's fate. For years he had no idea if he'd become the Ghost King or if he failed and the ghosts had to find someone else. But if he were really still 'alive'…

Mr. Lancer glanced at the television that was in his classroom. It was a glance that was not missed by any of his students. They all leaned forward with excitement. The teacher couldn't help but chuckle to himself. These students had all been in elementary school when Danny was actively protecting Amity Park. To them, he was probably little more than a real-life superhero who had disappeared for several years. He sighed. "I'll turn on the news..." He said, and the students let out a cheer. "If you all agree to write a thousand word essay on this act of Romeo and Juliet." The cheers quieted down, but then every single student nodded in agreement. Anything was worth the chance to see Phantom again.

Mr. Lancer walked over to the television and turned it on, flipping the channel to the local news station. Sure enough, they were brought to a feed of a news helicopter chasing after the form of a ghost. It had been six years since he'd last seen Danny, but he knew immediately it was him.

"The cape is new." One student commented.

"Actually, there was that one time when he was spotted wearing a cape." Another replied.

"I'm, like, ninety percent sure that was a bed sheet." Another said.

"Well, this one looks real." The first student said.

But Lancer's thoughts were more on why Danny was revealing himself in the human world after all these years rather than the changes to his clothes. He had told him personally that he would no longer be able to hide among humans anymore, so why had he come back? Judging by the way he kept stopping to wait for the news helicopters to catch up to him, he wanted to make some sort of announcement to the news, and was leading them somewhere they could safely land.

* * *

(Amity Park City Hall)

Danny Phantom landed on the steps of City Hall and patiently waited for the news helicopters to land. The first couple settled down and the reports practically tripped over themselves in their rush to get to the long-missing ghost.

With the sort of speed that Danny would have never believed, their cameras had been set up and several microphones were shoved in his face. He floated backwards, giving himself a little space.

"Phantom! Where have you been all this time?" One reporter yelled.

"Are you returning to Amity Park?"

"Can you comment on the lowered severity of ghost attacks in the last few years?"

For the moment, Danny remained quiet while the rest of the helicopters were landing. The reporters seemed to understand that he wasn't going to speak until they were joined by their compatriots, so they quieted down and waited for their fellows to get set up.

It only took a few more minutes, and not only were the reporters getting set up, but several city officials had come rushing out of city hall, not to mention the crowd of civilians that had gathered.

Before the reporters could start asking questions again, Danny spoke up. "People of Amity Park and all of humanity, shortly before I disappeared from the human world six years ago, the former Ghost King, Pariah Dark, faded into oblivion. The Ghost Zone was in need of a new king, and as the ghost who had defeated Pariah Dark in single combat, I was asked to become the King of all Ghosts. It was a responsibility that I accepted."

He noticed when all the reporter's eyes moved up to the Crown of Fire on his head.

"Yes, I have become the King of Ghosts, and as such I have been in the Ghost Zone for the past six years ruling over my domain." Danny paused and reminded himself that he couldn't say anything about the upcoming presidential election. "Now that the situation in the Ghost Zone has stabilized, I have decided that both our peoples can benefit from the other. It is with the hope that humans and ghosts can work together that I have come to formally extend the hand of friendship to humanity. It is my hope that the leaders of the world will accept and we can face the future together."

As soon as the reporters sensed that the speech was over, they began yelling for his attention with more questions. Danny took the time to answer a few of the questions, such as the change to his appearance and the drop in ghost attacks in Amity Park.

"I am sorry, no more questions." Danny said, beginning to float away. "I will return in a few weeks. If any human wishes to contact me with more questions, you may inquire through Jack and Maddie Fenton. They have been allies of mine for several years now and continue to be in contact with me." And, with that, Danny ripped open a hole to the Ghost Zone and stepped back through his his own dimension.

* * *

(Casper High, Mr. Lancer's English Classroom)

Most of the class was staring in shock at the television as Phantom calmly opened up a portal and went back into the Ghost Zone. Lancer, however, was not that shocked at his new power. What sort of ghost king would he be if he couldn't return to his own domain anytime he wanted.

"Wow, Phantom really became the king of ghosts?" One of the kids asked in shock.

"That is way cool!"

"Mr. Lancer?" One of his brighter students raised his hand. Lancer nodded towards him. "Why would Phan… King Phantom want humans and ghosts to work together? It seems kind of odd considering a vast majority of the ghosts that came to Amity Park were violent."

Mr. Lancer knew one answer off the top of his head. As far as he could guess, Danny was still half-human. Of course he would want his two peoples to be able to work together. But it had to go deeper than that. He'd specifically mentioned all the world leaders instead of just the leadership of Amity Park. If he just wanted Amity Park's attention, he could have just phased right into City Hall. In fact, he hadn't even waited around for the mayor to come out of her office.

So Lancer changed his perspective to the American government, and that is when he realized the answer. Just recently the UN has to step in a few times and stop the American government from passing anti-ghost laws that were on the verge of violating basic human rights. Of course, the debate was still going on strong if ghosts deserved the same rights as humans, but that just left the situation more precarious. Danny must've heard through his friends or family about the laws and was taking what steps he could to show that ghosts were intelligent.

"I suspect it has something to do with the anti-ghost laws that the government tried to pass." Mr. Lancer answered. "Those laws work on the assumed basis that ghosts are not human and therefore do not deserve the same rights as a human being. The opposition claims that ghosts are human, specifically former humans, and have retained their intelligence, sentience, and personality; so they deserve to be protected under basic human rights. King Phantom probably wants to protect his people by showing that they are not violent masses of barely-conscious ectoplasm."

"Do you think the governments would accept King Phantom's offer?" The student asked.

Lancer tried to remember which UN countries had blocked the United States from enacting the anti-ghost laws, but he couldn't remember. He hadn't paid much attention to it at the time. "I know that there are some countries that believe that ghosts deserve to be treated as former humans. They will probably accept Phantom's request. As for our own government, I cannot be too sure. The President will probably be willing to meet with King Phantom, but he does not have much time left in his last term in office."

"Do you think we can trust King Phantom?" One of the students asked nervously.

Mr. Lancer smiled. "Yes, I think we can trust him."


	12. Let's Have A Child

**LES: I'm including a head-cannon in this chapter about Jazz Fenton. It might not line up with everyone's view of her, but I'll go into detail at the end of the chapter on why I feel her portrayal in this way is important.**

* * *

 **Chapter XII: Let's Have A Child**

* * *

A couple of weeks had passed, and everything seemed to be going according to plan. At least, Jack and Maddie had shown up at Phantom's Keep several days ago with a letter directly from the current president. He had made no promises to the ghost king besides a promise to hear him out. So it was a good thing when Jazz showed up not long after the letter.

As soon as Jazz set foot in the castle, she found herself swept up into her brother's arms. Gone were the days when she had any sort of elder sibling height advantage over her little brother. Being held in his arms, her feet were still dangling off the floor by nearly half a foot. But she didn't mind. "Danny! It's so good to see you again!" Jazz said happily, embracing him.

"It's good to see you too, Jazz. I missed you so much." Danny said as he set her gently on the ground.

"Let me get a good look at you." Jazz said, giving him a good once-over. She had been told by Tucker that Danny had stopped aging, but it was not obvious yet. He now cut a much more imposing figure than he had even immediately after becoming the king.

"Welcome back, Jazz." The elder Fenton sibling glanced around for the new voice and her jaw nearly dropped when she saw who it was. It was Sam, but no longer the Sam that she remembered. She stood several inches taller than the last time Jazz had seen her, which was not surprising considering the young woman was actually floating and not standing. She wore a long, black flowing dress with dark green accents along the hem. Like Danny's eyes, her eyes were now green. Lastly, upon her head, she wore an onyx-black crown.

"Sam?" Jazz gasped, shocked. "I… I had heard from Tucker..." She moved over to the young ghost, taking her hand in her own. There was no warmth. "You're a ghost now?"

"Actually, according to Danny, I'm a spirit." Sam said.

Jazz nodded in understanding. She had long suspected that there were different levels of ghost, just looking at ghosts obsessed with something versus a ghost who clearly maintained all their mental capacity in their afterlife. "How are you doing?" Jazz asked, still a little worried. After all, whether she was now a ghost or a spirit, she was still dead.

"I'm fine." Sam said. "I wanted it this way. Now Danny and I can be together for our whole afterlives, and now we can finally have children." She smiled at her husband, and he smiled back.

"Children? Really?" Jazz gasped, excitedly. "Oh, that's wonderful Danny!" She pulled her brother into another embrace. "Is Sam all ready pregnant?"

"No, she's not." Danny said. "And she won't be. The good thing about having a ghost child? No pregnancy and no child birth. Although, according to Clockwork, the process is still quite strenuous on both parents."

"Lucky." Jazz said.

"Speaking of children, Jazz, how have things been going for you?" Danny asked.

Jazz froze for a moment. Without the qualifier, she could just get away with talking about how her career had been progressing. That she was a very well-respected psychologist (who dabbled in para-psychology on the side), about her friends and co-workers. About how strange it was to live in a city where she could make her morning commute without once getting interrupted by a ghost attack. But mentioning children really narrowed down what Danny was asking.

"There's nothing to say." She said, trying to hide her nerves. "I'm been focused on my career. Who has time for dating, let alone getting serious enough for thinking about children?"

Danny, however, was not as clueless as he once was. "Jazz? Is something wrong?" He asked. "You sound nervous, and I can literally feel your fear in the air."

"You know it's really creepy when you do stuff like that." Jazz grumbled. "I'm supposed to be the one in your head, not the other way around." She sighed. "Look, Danny. You don't have anything to worry about. I just don't want to talk about it right now. I promise, I'm fine. Let's talk about you for now. I'm guessing your sudden desire to align yourself with human governments has something to do with Vlad running for president?"

"Besides the fact that I think it needs to be done… I'll admit that Vlad's announcement did kick my plans into high gear." Danny admitted.

"I'd say that you are taking the best course of action." Jazz said. "How much longer until your meeting with the president?"

"A little over a week." Danny answered.

"Good. Then I'll be staying here for a while." Jazz said.

At Danny's mental command, several servants appeared. "Please ready a guest suite for my sister." He ordered, they bowed and left to get to work. "Are you sure you can take that much time off work?" He asked.

"I haven't taken one day of vacation since I started. The senior partners have been practically begging me to use up some of my vacation time." Jazz said. "Don't worry about it, little brother. Besides, if there's any trouble, I could just tell them that I was needed by the king of ghosts."

"Because he's a basket case?" Sam asked.

All three of them laughed.

* * *

(Later)

Danny had a meeting with his council so Sam decided she would wait for her husband up in their chambers. She lay down on the bed, gazing up at the night sky representation formed on the ceiling, and just thought to herself.

Jazz had been really concerned for her mental well-being, but Sam honestly felt very little difference between being dead and alive, at least mentally. As far as she could tell from her own feelings, becoming a spirit instead of a ghost had left her personality intact and left her free of obsession.

She lifted her hand in front of her face, and summoned some ectoplasm to her hand, casting a deep green glow around the room. But, if she was a spirit, shouldn't she be significantly more powerful than most ghosts? This far in, and there was no indication that she had either unique powers or how her ghostly core would eventually affiliate. After all, Danny had always had the clues that he possessed an ice core, it was just no one realized that's what he had until he started almost freezing himself to death.

She very much doubted that she would have an ice core as well. She didn't even know what determined that sort of thing. One of the theories was that it had something to do with how the ghost died, but if that were true Danny would probably have an electric core instead of an ice one. More likely it was something that was innate to each ghost.

She sat up when the door opened. She knew it was Danny instantly. The castle's servants were the only other ones with access to the King's bedchamber, and they all avoided the area if the king or queen were inside. She floated over to him and pulled him into a kiss, which he gladly returned. She pulled away from him and gazed into his eyes. "How was your meeting?" She asked.

"Fine." Danny answered. "But the Council doesn't have as much power as they did when I first became the king. The Observants are still salty, and of course I'll always listen to them, but they have all decided to stand behind me in bringing the human world and Ghost Zone closer together. But you don't have to worry about that right now. Let's go."

"Where are we going?" Sam asked.

"I can't keep you in the Ghost Zone forever." Danny said. "Besides, you'll need to practice keeping your form together outside of the Ghost Zone."

"But isn't it a little dangerous to be in the human world right now, especially if I need to learn how to 'keep myself together'?" Sam asked.

"I promise, I would never take you anywhere dangerous. It will be completely safe." Danny said, he held out his hand and opened up a portal out of the Ghost Zone. "I'll even go through first." He floated closer to the portal.

"Where does the portal lead?" Sam asked.

"It's a surprise." Danny said, giving her a smug smirk before he disappeared through the portal.

Sam laughed and followed her husband through the portal.

* * *

(…)

The first thing that Sam noticed upon going through the portal was that, for the first time, she actually did have to concentrate on keeping the outer shell of her ectoplasmic form together.

Thankfully, a couple of ghosts had been teaching her about how to keep herself together, so after briefly losing her form, she was able to literally pull herself back together. Once she was back in one piece, she turned her attention to her surroundings. Danny was watching her with a big grin on his face.

She looked around. It was night, and they seemed to be in the middle of some sort of featureless desert. She was, she had to admit, a little disappointed. Even by desert standards, this place seemed boring, not even a cactus in sight.

"Danny… what?" She began to ask, and that's when she saw what was behind Danny instead of just looking at him.

Behind Danny… was the earth! She was on the moon! She gasped in horror. Danny was on the moon! He didn't have a helmet or anything to protect him from the vacuum of space.

"Danny! What the hell are you thinking?!" She demanded. "I know you can hold your breath longer than most but..." She trailed off when Danny laughed at her, but she heard no sound. She grumbled. Of course. Sound waves were inaudible in space.

She felt Danny's mind touch hers. _"Sam, you know no one can hear you scream in space."_

" _Danny, what the hell is wrong with you? You need to get back now!"_ Sam 'yelled' at him.

" _No, I don't. Sam, I'm fine. I promise."_ Danny told her. " _It turns out that I don't have to breath at all if I'm in my ghost form. I just put my human half in… hibernation, and the human need to breath just… stops."_

" _So, are you pulling a Superman on me?"_ Sam asked with a smirk. For a long time, the comic book character had been depicted wearing a space suit and a helmet in space, but then he had learned that he didn't need oxygen to survive, only sunlight. After that, he'd rarely been depicted as wearing any sort of protection in space.

" _Yeah, I guess I am."_ Danny replied. _"Don't worry, I didn't risk everything coming here just now. I all ready knew."_ He pointed down at the dusty ground. Sam followed his finger and saw a boot print in the regolith. After knowing Danny for so long, she knew what the astronaut's footprints looked like. This print didn't match up at all. But it was very familiar. It was the print from his Phantom uniform. _"Remember that time you and Tucker were out of town for the weekend when we were seventeen?"_ Danny asked. _"I was bored, I wanted to see how high I could fly. I almost suffocated in the upper atmosphere, but that's when I learned I could stop my need to breath. So, without that issue, I went higher..."_

" _You flew all the way to the moon?"_ Sam asked.

" _I'd always wanted to be an astronaut."_ Danny said with a shrug. _"I was the thirteenth human to walk on the moon. Well… half-human."_

Sam turned her gaze upwards. It was one thing to be told in science classes that the earth's very atmosphere distorted the view of the stars, but another to actually see space with the clarity she was now. She met his eyes and matched his smile. _"You certainly know how to pull off date night."_

As a ghost, her natural state was floating, but Sam deliberately let herself touch down on the regolith. She offered her hand to him. He smiled as he took her hand in his own, giving her an elegant bow before he swept her up in his arms. As they danced together in silence they both realized that here was a first: the first dance on the moon.

Their eyes stayed locked as they spun around each other, using their years of learning how to dance for ghostly functions to waltz across the surface of the moon. _"I love you."_ She sighed as she pressed against his chest.

" _I love you too, Sam."_ Danny responded, gently taking her chin and lifting her eyes to meet his. For a few moments, they only gazed into each others eyes. Sam lifted off the regolith and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a deep and passionate kiss.

Danny tightened his grip on his wife, meeting her lips passion for passion. When they parted, he smirked at her and swept her back up into the dance.

" _Do you think my core is mature enough now?"_ Sam asked him desperately. _"I want to have a child with you, Danny."_

Danny slowed in their dance, and pressed his hand gently against her chest. He could feel the pulse of her ghostly core safely within her ectoplasm body. It would be years before her core fully matured, but that didn't matter for making a ghost child. She just needed the control and strength to perform the action. He could feel the strength of her spirit through her core. He smiled at her. _"Yes. Your core should be plenty strong enough."_

" _Tomorrow."_ Sam said.

Danny kissed her again. _"Tomorrow."_ He agreed.

* * *

(The Next Day)

Sam and Danny were both anxious to have a child, but Danny had promised his parents that he would give them the chance to obverse how ghost reproduction worked. So Danny sent a message to them with one of his servants and sent Sam with Thanatos to make sure that she understood every step of the process.

While waiting for his parents to arrive, Danny went to find Jazz. He had not been able to stop thinking about the things she'd said the day before. Perhaps what was on her mind wasn't bothering her, but it was obviously something important. He found her in her suite.

He knocked first, and Jazz told him to come in. He did. "Good morning, Jazz."

"Hard to tell what time it is in the Ghost Zone." Jazz said, glancing at her cellphone for the time. There was no signal, but at least the clock still worked.

"Sam and I are going to create our child today." Danny told her. "Would you be interested in watching?"

At first, Jazz's face twisted in disgust, assuming that her brother was just asking to be an annoying sibling. "You said that ghost babies don't involve pregnancy or childbirth, so I'm assuming the… conception is different too?"

"Of course. Mom and Dad are coming to study what happens, and why would I let them watch if it was like human sex?" Danny asked. Once again, Danny noticed the odd look on Jazz's face. "Jazz, is something wrong? You can tell me anything, you know." He said.

"I know." She sighed. "Damn, I'm a licensed therapist, and I'm still having trouble opening up..."

"Jazz, whatever it is, I promise that I won't judge you." Danny said. This whole thing started when Danny brought up asking if Jazz wanted children yesterday, so it had to have something to do with that. "Is there… something wrong… physically." She looked at him blankly. "Well, you are getting funny when I bring up children. Is it that you can't have a baby? Because I would understand completely. One of the reasons that Sam became a ghost is because I'm sterile as a human."

"No! No. Nothing's wrong… physically." Jazz said.

"So… are you homosexual?" Danny asked.

"No… but..." Jazz said, her eyes on the floor. "I've known for years but I've never told anyone. Just give me a few… minutes..." She stood up and walked over to the window. Danny waited patiently for her to start speaking again, his mind racing. After about two minutes, Danny gasped when he saw Jazz's shoulders shaking from crying.

"Jazz!" Danny gasped, getting up and rushing to her side. "Jazz, what's wrong? Please tell me." He pulled her into an embrace, and she began to cry openly on his shoulder.

"Danny? Am I always going to be alone?" She cried.

"No! Jazz, why would you think that?" Danny said.

"Because I'm not normal." Jazz said, meeting her brother's eyes. "I realized when I was fifteen years old. I'm asexual."

For a few moments, Danny didn't reply as he took in what Jazz was saying. "But, Jazz… I mean, I guess I don't remember you having… what about Johnny 13?" He asked. Of course, that was the _only_ time he remembered Jazz being interested in a guy or anyone.

"Oh, you mean the one relationship I had when I was being mildly overshadowed for the majority of the relationship?" Jazz pointed out. "I wanted to get to know him, and just because I'm asexual doesn't mean I'm totally opposed to having a romantic relationship with someone. But… for most people romance and sex walk hand-in-hand. How could I have a relationship with a man, and expect him to be okay with my lack of sexual desire?"

To be honest, Danny didn't have an answer for that. He tried to imagine what he would have done if Sam had told him that she didn't want to have sex with him in their relationship. Of course, he would have respected her wishes, but he also knew that he was a heterosexual male and that had about as much chance of changing as any other sexual orientation.

"Jazz… I'm the king of ghosts and I can feel the infinite reaches of the ghost zone every moment of my life, but I can't see the future. Not even Clockwork can see the future with one hundred percent certainty. But I do know one thing: you are the best big sister I could have asked for. You're smart and you care a lot about everyone around you, which is why your a great psychologist. If there isn't a guy out there who can see how amazing you are, then we should just give up hope on the whole human race."

Jazz let out a short laugh as she wiped her tears away. "Some therapist I am..."

"Hey, everyone needs a pep talk every once in a while." Danny said. "Jazz..."

"Thanks for listening. And thanks for not freaking out." Jazz said, embracing her brother. "After keeping this secret for so many years, it feels kind of good to let someone know."

"Now that's something I know about." Danny said, returning her embrace. "Love ya, sis."

"I love you too, Danny."

* * *

 **LES: In the four years that I took off from fan fiction, I was able to come to terms with the fact that I am asexual, which is more than I can say for many of the people in my life. I've only told a few people, and I'm pretty sure that my sister is the only one who believes that I don't have sexual desire. Pretty much everyone else gives me the whole 'It's a phase" or the "You haven't found the right person" speech. Since I started reading fan fiction again, I love stories that have a realistic asexual character in the story. In Danny Phantom, Jazz is by far the closest, and in canon could definitely be an asexual/hetero-romantic. In the entire show, the only times romance is mentioned in relation to Jazz is with Johnny 13, Dash Baxter when she was tutoring him (my head canon is that he came onto her, she shut him down completely, and that's why she refused to consider going to his party), and when Danny made her have a nightmare about being married to Dash. Seeing as only one percent of the population considers themselves to be some form of asexual, and my fellow asexuals still have trouble being accepted into the LGTBQ community, I want to take every chance I have to spread awareness. If you want to learn more about asexuality, I'd suggest checking out the website "the Asexual Visibility and Education Network".**


	13. The Birth of a Ghost

**LES: Words cannot say how happy I am with all the reviews for my Jazz head canon. Going against the grain is never easy. I know that she's pretty commonly paired up with Tucker, but that always felt too much like 'pair the spares' for me. And speaking of Tucker, does anyone have any votes for who I should pair him with? I could always pair him with Valerie, but I'm willing to be open-minded about suggestions.**

 **I'm sorry this chapter took a while. I'm one of the worst ever at coming up with names for OC's. There's one website that I've used a lot for coming up with character names, but most of the names… let's just say the names lean more Sam than Danny. I can imagine Sam wanting to name their child something like Spyridon or Euthymios, but I can't imagine Danny going along with it even if the names technically fit. It took a while to find a name that was weird so that Sam would like it, but not so weird that Danny's only reaction would be 'how do you pronounce that?'**

* * *

 **Chapter XIII: The Birth of A Ghost**

* * *

Valerie grumbled to herself as she flew at top speed across the state. _I know Danny means well, but could he have asked me for anything simpler?_ Ever since the day Danny had revealed his secret to her, Valerie had been keeping her promises. Both to keep his secret and to keep an eye out for his clone.

Fortune had smiled on the young woman when, several days after, she got a hit on her ghost radar. It was like Danny Phantom's ghostly signature, but not quite, and that was good enough for her. But now she was flying as quickly as she could to meet the young Phantom halfway to Amity Park.

Valerie glanced down at her radar. She was definitely making her way back to Amity Park, but slowly. Why was she moving so slowly? Even back in his first few months as Phantom, Danny could still fly faster than what Danielle was pulling. So she was left doing most of the flying.

An hour later, Valerie brought her jet-sled to a halt, glancing at her radar again. According to the radar, she was very close to the young Phantom's position, but the girl did not appear. Probably hiding invisibly from her. Even though Valerie had helped the girl escape from Vlad years ago, their first meeting was not exactly on great terms and she could understand the girl's reluctance to reveal herself.

To make herself less threatening, Valerie shut down all her suit systems except for the ones that controlled her sled. She reached up and pulled the mask up over her head. "Dani Phantom? Is that you around here? I don't want to hurt you, but I have a message from Danny."

She sat down on her sled and waited patiently for some kind of reply. Nothing came, and Valerie sighed. "I guess I understand if you don't want to reveal yourself, but I promised your cousin that I would help you get safely to him in the Ghost Zone. I don't think you've heard, but Danny's the King of Ghosts now. He wants you to come stay with him, so you'll be safe from Vlad."

A voice came out of nowhere. "So it's true?" Valerie blinked and Dani Phantom appeared out of thin air. At first, Valerie could only stare at the young Phantom in shock. And she meant 'young' Phantom literally. It seemed as if the girl had not aged a single day since she'd last seen her all those years ago. "Is it true that Danny's the ghost king now?"

"Dani, I..." Valerie gasped in shock. "You look like you haven't aged a day!"

Dani's excitement dropped and she stared at her feet. "A ghost's appearance changes as they gain more power. And as for my ghost form matching my human body... let's just say that I'm better off this way. When Danny saved me from destabilizing, he was able to stop me from melting, but since the ectoplasm never fused with my DNA correctly, I don't have the ability to get any stronger than this. But I don't really mind. Having my growth stunted is far better than being a puddle of ectoplasm."

"That's awful." Valerie said. "Is that why you were flying so slowly?"

Dani nodded. "But I've done pretty good with what I've got. I came all the way from Japan."

"You made it all the way from Japan at those speeds?" Valerie gasped.

"Well, I cheated at first. I went intangible and took a short cut through the earth." Dani said. "But I emerged from the earth a little further from Amity Park than I wanted. So is it true?" Dani repeated. "I was floating down the streets of Tokyo and I heard some Japanese news program mention Danny's name! I couldn't understand what was going on, but I thought I heard the words ghost king."

Valerie nodded. "I guess he became the ghost king six years ago. He's been in the Ghost Zone since then. But he came out briefly to give that press conference. He also told me the truth about himself and asked me to keep an eye out for you."

"Danny told you?" Dani asked, a little shocked.

Valerie nodded. "I've had a while to think about it, and it all makes sense. I probably would have been able to figure it out if I stopped and considered that you're his 'cousin' and half human." Valerie stood up and changed her stance on her jet-sled to give young Dani room to sit down on it. "Climb on board, and I'll get you back to Amity Park. I'd offer to take you to the nearest natural portal, but I have no way of tracking those… unless you do…?"

Dani shook her head as she positioned herself on the sled so that her weight was centered. She wanted it to be easier for Valerie to keep her balance. "If I did, I would have just found a portal in Japan. I was hoping to get into the Ghost Zone through the Fenton Portal."

"The Fenton Portal it is..." Valerie commented and they began to fly back towards Amity Park.

"You might be able to go faster if I turn us intangible." Dani commented. "Avoid air resistance and stuff like that."

"Are you strong enough to hold on?" Valerie asked, concerned.

"If I scream that means you've left me behind." Dani joked. "Seriously, though, I'm not very strong for a ghost, but I'm much stronger than a normal human." She turned them both intangible and Valerie began to flew back towards Amity Park much faster than her sled could pull on its own.

* * *

(Amity Park, Outside Fenton Works)

Valerie brought the jet-sled to a stop above the Fenton Works sign and glanced at the young girl on her sled, concerned. Dani had kept them intangible the entire way back to Amity Park, and it had obviously taken its toll on the girl. She was panting hard, but thankfully showed no signs of destabilizing. "Are you sure you're okay?" Valerie asked.

"I'm not going to melt." Dani said, between breaths. "I think I'm stuck at being a high level 2 ghost. So keeping intangibility up for that long is hard."

Valerie glanced at her ghost tracker, getting a read on Dani's power. "Actually, you're about 3.6."

She sighed. "Still much lower than Danny ever was. I can't even imagine how powerful he must be as the Ghost King."

"He's much higher than a level 10." Valerie said. "He maxed out all my readings and took several blasts from a bazooka that should at least injure a level 10 ghost without flinching."

Dani sighed. "I'm fine with it." But Valerie got the impression that she wasn't fine with it. "Danny may have been able to stabilize me, but no one can really fix what's gone wrong with me."

"What exactly has gone wrong?" Valerie asked. "I thought that Danny helped fix your… issue before?"

"When Vlad made me and the other clones, he was missing a vital part of Danny's DNA, the mid-morph DNA, the unique part of his physiology that tells his body how to change from human to ghost and back again without the ectoplasm destroying or mutating his DNA with every change. I got off lucky at first. I can't be sure, but I think it was a random gene mutation that made me female instead of male. None of the other clones were so lucky, all of them afflicted with wild mutations. Without the mid-morph DNA, I run the risk of mutating or destroying my DNA with every change. After a few too many changes, something in my human body broke and could no longer keep the ectoplasm of my form together on my own. Danny saved my life when he infused me with enough ectoplasm to stabilize my ghost form. But nothing can be done for my human body now. It's broken beyond repair. I can't change into a human or I'll die. Becoming destabilized not only hurt my human form, but also my ghost form, leaving me with stunted growth. My body cannot contain a high level of ectoplasm, so I'm stuck with a low power rating."

Now Valerie was beyond angry at herself. She had never suspected that Dani's situation was so bad, and now she hated herself for turning the young ghost girl over to Vlad all those years ago. "Why would he bother making clones that he knew couldn't be stable?"

Dani met her eyes. "Because he didn't care about any of us, except for Clone Prime. We were a means to an end, to trick Danny into handing over the one thing that would stabilize his main clone: the mid-morph DNA."

"Why can't Danny give you that DNA now?" Valerie asked.

"Because the mutations means that my DNA does not match his." Dani said. "I'm a female, and he's not… among other mutations. Danny's mid-morph DNA covers his entire DNA strand. If even one bit of genetic code is wrong, it can't be patched in. Only the Clone Prime, whose DNA was not mutated and a perfect match of Danny's could be stabilized. Believe me, I've had a lot of time to think about it…"

Valerie landed the jet-sled and sent her suit away with a thought. Even after all these years, she still had no idea what happened to the suit when she wasn't wearing it. Her best guess was that it became a part of her body, but she couldn't be sure about that.

She skipped up the steps and knocked on the door, louder than she would for a normal family's house. After all, one couldn't be sure if the Fentons were in the middle of an experiment.

They waited outside for over a minute, before coming to the conclusion that the Fentons were not home. "Can you phase in and see where they are?" Valerie asked.

"I don't want to use my powers to break into people's homes." Dani said. "Besides, I'm not sure if Danny's parents know about me."

"But they know about him now." Valerie said.

"I can't really imagine Danny telling his parents that his archenemy made a clone of him on top of him being a half-ghost. You know how Danny is. Everything is on a need-to-know basis."

"I'll say." Valerie grumbled. "He took off to the Ghost Zone to become king six years ago, and left behind a bullshit story about studying ghosts abroad for his parents. I was scared that Danny was dead for years. And he still didn't tell me until I attacked him about it."

Valerie gave one last look at her ghost radar in the hopes that Danny might somehow realize how close his clone was to the Fenton Portal. But, apparently, his awareness did only extend through the Ghost Zone.

"I guess the only thing we can do is wait." Valerie said. "Are you hungry? We could go get something to eat?"

"Yeah. I'm starving! I haven't eaten anything in days!"

"Days?" Valerie gasped, worried.

"Surprisingly, there are not many restaurants in the earth's core." Dani said sarcastically.

"Oh, right." Valerie said, leading the girl down the street. There was a pretty good hole-in-the-wall burger joint near the Fenton's place where they could have lunch and wait for whatever was keeping the Fentons out.

* * *

(Phantom's Keep)

It was time.

Thanatos and Clockwork had told the king and queen everything they needed to know about the creation of a ghost child, and now it was time to actually do it. But, first, Clockwork made sure he knew with absolute certainty that no weapons were in the room. Of course, everyone in the room was completely trusted by the couple, but they were about to be at their most vulnerable. Not to mention that Jack Fenton had a habit of hiding ecto-guns in the strangest places.

Thanatos, meanwhile, checked the windows, sealing them shut from outside influence. Jack, Maddie, Jazz, and Tucker all watched, curious about how this was supposed to happen. Danny had tried to explain to them, but they had been unable to picture what was supposed to happen.

Thanatos and Clockwork glanced at each other and nodded. "We are perfectly safe."

"Do you know why all the safety precautions are necessary?" Jazz asked Tucker.

Tucker shrugged. "Danny said that the ritual makes both parents vulnerable to being destroyed, but I can't imagine how."

"Are you ready, Sam?" Danny asked, she nodded, giving him a smile.

Just as they had promised, the ritual required no physical touch, but neither of them could resist sharing a quick kiss. When they pulled apart, Danny led the way. He turned his hand intangible and reached into his own chest. Maddie gasped in shock when he removed his hand from his chest.

He was now holding some sort of crystal in between his hands. As soon as the crystal was exposed to the air, the air temperature dropped a good twenty degrees, turning all the humans' breath misty. It was Danny's ice core.

Maddie now understood the danger involved with this ritual. A ghost's core represented their very being. Normally, it would be protected by the ghost's outer shell of ectoplasm. It would take an incredibly specialized weapon to punch through a ghost's body to reach the core. But with the core exposed outside of Danny's body, pretty much anything could destroy his very soul right now.

Now it was Sam's turn. She turned her hand intangible, reached into her own chest, and pulled out her core. Her core had not visually specialized yet, but Jazz noticed that her core did seem to be a deeper green than normal ectoplasm, though that could just be because it was denser than normal ectoplasm.

They took a step closer together, held out their hands, and allowed the two cores to come into contact with each other. As soon as the cores touched, there was a brief flash of bright ectoplasm. When the light faded, Danny and Sam's cores were returned to their original places in their chests and between them hovered an unformed mass of ectoplasm.

Sam seemed to be exhausted, but as the stronger ghost of the pairing, the rest of up to Danny now. He pulled in stray ectoplasm from the environment, and feeding it directly into the ectoplasm mass between them. It was ultimately up to him how powerful his and Sam's child would become. Both he and Sam had agreed to give their child enough ectoplasm to become a spirit, so he pulled in more and more ectoplasm until the tipping point was reached. And then Danny gave the child more ectoplasm, to better defend himself or herself from the dangers of the Ghost Zone.

When he was satisfied with the amount of ectoplasm he had given his child, the flow of energy stopped and the ectoplasm began to form into a recognizable shape. Danny reached up and took the young spirit in his arms just as the child's body solidified.

"Sam..." He whispered. "We have a son."

Her exhaustion completely forgotten, Sam stood up and gazed lovingly at Danny and then at her son. Her son's appearance seemed to have taken largely from Danny, but that did not shock her so much. He was the more powerful one of the two of them. The newborn spirit was not nearly as small as a newborn human. He seemed to be about one year old, compared to a human. And he would grow out of childhood much faster than a human would, thanks to all the ectoplasm that Danny had given the child upon his formation. His hair was white, and his eyes were green just like both of his parents. But Sam could still see bits of herself in her son, in the shape of his nose and other subtle physical traits.

One by one, all the onlookers moved in for a closer look at the newborn spirit. "He'll be a powerful one." Clockwork said, as he gazed down at the child.

"Oh, Danny, sweetie, he's adorable." Maddie cooed over the child.

Jazz walked forward with a smile, handing Danny a blanket. Just like a human baby, the spirit child had been born naked. He accepted the blanket with a smile and, with Sam's help, carefully wrapped it around their son.

Thanatos even stepped closer, removing his hood to expose his normal face. He grinned down at the child. "My business may be death, but birth is something truly magical. Congratulations, your Majesty. He's a fine young prince."

"Have you two decided what you're going to name him?" Tucker asked.

Sam nodded. "I think that the name Samael would be pretty appropriate for the prince of the underworld."

Thanatos chuckled at her choice of name. "It's a perfect name, and it's not like I'm using it at the moment."

"Is there a joke I'm missing here?" Tucker asked.

Thanatos answered. "In the Jewish religion, Samael was the archangel of death. Their version of the Grim Reaper, if you will."

"Shall we announce that His Royal Highness, Prince Samael Phantom has been born?" Clockwork asked, Danny just nodded, still staring in awe at his son. Clockwork just smiled knowingly and left to go make the announcement.

"He's beautiful, Sam." Danny breathed, his voice low from instinct.

"He is, isn't he?" Sam whispered back.

* * *

 **LES: It wasn't until I had chosen the name that I realized that it also shortens to Sam. Oh well, let's just say that Samael is one of the only DP characters who is okay with using his full name. I felt okay with using a name straight out of the Jewish religion since Sam is Jewish.**

 **Also, I'm so sorry for what I've done to Dani. I just never thought that the Ecto-Dejecto would have solved her original problem. Don't worry, I don't have any plans on hurting Dani. She may not be very strong, and her human form may be damaged beyond repair, but it is still alive and that's keeping her away from becoming an obsessive low-level ghost.**


	14. Phantom Reunion

**Chapter XIV: Phantom Reunion**

* * *

The sun was almost setting and Valerie was on the verge of asking Dani to stay the night when she decided to make one last run past the Fenton's place to see if they were home yet.

As they walked up to the brownstone building, Dani asked Valerie nervously. "Will you stay for a while?" She asked. "I'm not exactly sure how to explain myself to Danny's parents."

"Of course I'll stay and help explain." Valerie told the girl. She walked up to the door and knocked loudly. Less than a minute later, they got their answer about whether the Fentons were home. Maddie opened the door, with one of biggest smiles that Valerie had seen her wear in years.

Though, when Maddie saw that it was Valerie, she quickly worked to tone her smile down. "Good evening, Valerie. Is there something we can help you with?"

"Yes." Valerie said. "Can we come inside? It's about Danny and his… you know… secret." Valerie lowered her voice, glancing around for eavesdroppers.

"We?" Maddie asked, confused, and then she spotted the young girl hiding behind Valerie, giving her a sheepish grin. "Oh, yes, of course. Come in." She shut the door behind Valerie and Dani. "I didn't know that Danny had let you know about his… secret."

"He told me the truth when he came back to the human world to open up relations between the human world and the Ghost Zone. That's actually part of the reason why I'm here today. He asked me for a favor, and I'm here to see it done."

"And who is this young lady?" Maddie asked.

At first, Dani was pretty shocked that Maddie said nothing about her being an obvious ghost, but if she really did know the truth about her son now, being around ghosts was probably not as big deal anymore. But when Dani opened her mouth to answer, she found that she couldn't say the words. She desperately looked to Valerie for help.

"It's a little bit complicated, Mrs. Fenton." Valerie said. "One of Danny's archenemies from back in the day is actually someone who wanted Danny to be his apprentice instead. When Danny refused, he tried to clone Danny to make himself a perfect half-ghost son. This is Dani Phantom, the only surviving clone."

Maddie's eyes widened as she stared down at the young girl. "But how could you be a female clone?"

"Unlike Danny, who through pure luck, had his ectoplasm bind to his DNA in such a way that it did not destroy or mutate his genetic information with every shift to and from his ghost form; Dani's ectoplasm is crudely patched in, causing the sort of mutations one would normally expect from the fusion of ectoplasm and living tissue. One of her earliest mutations changed her from male to female." Valerie explained. "When Danny came back to the human world, he asked me to keep an eye out for her, and to bring her to him in the Ghost Zone safely."

"Oh, then that's perfect!" Maddie said, smiling. "We've actually spent most of the day at Phantom's Keep and we're going back in a few minutes. We only really came back to pick up our cameras."

"Have you found something new to study in the Ghost Zone?" Valerie asked.

"Even better." Maddie said, smiling. "Danny became a father today! Jack and I got to witness ghost reproduction up close! It was very interesting! And the baby? He's just so adorable!"

While Valerie expressed her congratulations to the Fentons on becoming grandparents, Dani's face fell. Danny was a father now? A real father? She knew that he had always called her a cousin, but ever since her falling out with Vlad a small part of her had felt like Danny was her father.

It was silly. Danny was not really her father. He was not any sort of normal relative to her. Vlad had stolen his DNA and created her in a lab. But on cold nights when she was all alone; when she saw parents and their children playing together, speaking in languages she couldn't understand but when the meaning behind the words could not be more clear; on the day she first realized that she could no longer shift into her human form without risking death… during those times she called him daddy.

But now he had a child. Not just any child, but a prince or princess. One who was sure to be much more impressive than a half-formed halfa with barely enough ectoplasm to protect herself against all but the weakest foes.

"Dani? Is something wrong?" Valerie asked.

"What? Oh, it's nothing!" Dani said, forcing a smile on her face. "Danny's a dad now? That's great! I didn't even know he was married."

But she could fool neither of the women. Maddie knelt down, meeting the girl's eyes. "What's wrong, Dani?" She asked.

"It's… it's nothing. It's not that big of a deal." Dani said, trying to play off her feelings.

"It's obviously a big deal for you." Valerie said.

Dani looked up at Valerie. "It's just… when he asked you to find me, I know that he was more than willing to take me in and keep me safe from our enemies. But now he has a child. What use could he possibly have for me? A halfa so broken that I can't even change human anymore?"

"Sweetie… people are not members of a family because they are useful to each other." Maddie said. "They are a family because they care about each other. And just because new members are added to a family doesn't mean they stop caring or care less about the ones who are all ready there."

"Honey! I found the camera!" Jack yelled from upstairs and came rushing down. As soon as he spotted Dani, he stopped in his tracks. "Oh. And who are you?"

Maddie smiled. "Jack, sit down. I'm sure this is a story we'd all like to hear."

"But… we have to get back into the Ghost Zone." Jack began, holding up the camera.

"Samael is only a few hours old. We are not going to miss anything." Maddie laughed.

"Samael?" Valerie asked. "Let me guess… Sam picked the name?" Maddie nodded.

Dani smiled. For the first time in years, she finally felt at ease, and well enough to tell her story. So she told her story, making sure to never call Vlad by name. Valerie had told her over lunch that Danny was still trying to keep that piece of information a secret to everyone. Something about Vlad's fragile mental state. Dani didn't mind. She didn't want to set Vlad off any more than Danny. Danny could, at least, protect himself from Vlad's wrath. If Vlad came after her again, she would likely be erased completely.

* * *

(Phantom's Keep)

When Danny first took over Phantom's Keep all those years ago, there had been a chamber branching off from his room that was empty and had no obvious purpose. Now it finally had its purpose.

"Sometimes I think this castle has its own sense of humor." Danny commented, poking at the mobile that was hanging above Samael's newly-created crib. Instead of the typical things that were on human mobiles, little toy ghosts hung down over the crib.

"The keep is tied directly to you." Sam commented. "That means this somehow came out of you."

"Really? I'm much more creative than this!" Danny laughed.

"This coming from the guy who chose the name 'Danny Phantom' as his alter-ego's name." Sam said.

"Sam, I was fourteen years old." Danny turned to face her with a smile. She never looked more beautiful to him than she did at that moment, holding their son in her arms. "How are you feeling? Are you okay?" He asked.

"Well, it wasn't as strenuous as nine months of pregnancy and childbirth, but it was strenuous in its own way. Having my core outside of my body… I've never felt so vulnerable." Sam blushed as her mind drifted back to their child's creation. Danny had told the truth to his parents. There was no physical contact needed to create a ghost child, but at the moment when their cores came into contact with one another… It had been one of the most sensual things she had ever experienced in her life. A ghost's core was their identity after all, and she had felt every aspect of Danny's soul. She felt the vast amount of power that he held at his command, she felt a brief awareness of nearly all of his memories, and she had felt the full range of his emotions, which at the time, was mostly composed of a love so powerful it left her stunned.

She knew he loved her, that had been clear for years. But you could never know just how deeply that love ran until you had the chance to experience that first hand.

"And when our cores touched..." Danny trailed off, apparently having the same thoughts as Sam. "Clockwork or Thanatos should have warned me it would be like soul sex. I would not have let my parents watch!" He trailed off with a laugh.

"It was a meeting of souls, and we had never experienced that before." Sam said. "And we did fine. Better than fine." She trailed off, gazing down at their son.

Danny swept over to her, wrapped his arms around her, and joined her in staring at their son. "He's perfect, Sam. Perfect."

"I know the spiritual monarchy doesn't work the same way as a human monarchy does, but I know he'll make us proud." Sam said as she gently placed him down in his crib. Then she turned and pulled Danny into the passionate kiss that she had been dying to give him since their son had been born.

However, just about as things began to heat up between the two, Danny pulled away from Sam with a thoughtful look on his face. "Danny, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." Danny said. "Sam… Danielle, my clone, is back in the Ghost Zone!"

"That's wonderful!" Sam gasped. She had never met Danielle herself, but she knew a lot about the clone girl from Danny. "I know you've been worried about her. Go. Bring her to the Keep. I'll meet you down in the throne room."

Danny smiled gratefully at his wife, took one moment to make sure that Samael was sleeping peacefully, and then opened a portal and stepped through.

* * *

(Just inside the Fenton Portal)

Almost as soon as the Specter Speeder was in the Ghost Zone, Dani let out a sigh of relief. "What is it, Dani?" Maddie asked.

"Ever since my human body failed, I've been living in my ghost form all the time. My ghost form feeds on ectoplasm, but that's always been hard to come by on my travels. Sure, I was always able to get enough to survive from natural portals, or picking up stray ectoplasm from other ghost's haunts, but the Ghost Zone is like a seven course meal when it comes to energy."

"That makes sense." Jack commented. "When Danny still lived in the human world, he could not get access to enough ectoplasm to sustain him fully, which is why he still needed to sustain himself with food and sleep. Since he's moved into the Ghost Zone, he's had no need for either of those things."

"Are you kidding me?" Valerie gasped. "Danny hasn't eaten or slept in years?"

"No, he has. But both of those things are a luxury now and not a necessity." Jack said. "The ambient ectoplasm of the Ghost Zone can sustain him completely."

Before they could step on the gas to make their way towards Phantom's Keep, a portal opened up in front of them. Jack and Maddie, who were well-familiar with their son's knack to pop up out of nowhere within the Ghost Zone put on the breaks. And, sure enough, their son floated through the portal.

Dani gasped in shock. She might not have aged a day since she last saw Danny, but he most certain had gotten older. And he looked the part of a ghost king as well. His physical changes were still nothing compared to the vast amounts of ectoplasm that seemed to radiate off him. When she saw him, felt his power, she stopped being scared of Vlad, because what could Vlad possibly do to such a powerful ghost?

"Dani!" Danny gasped excitedly, holding his arms open for her.

Dani couldn't wait another moment. She turned intangible and phased through the front of the Specter Speeder and dove into Danny's arms. "Danny!"

"Dani, it's so good to see you again after all this time." Danny said, embracing her tightly and then loosening his grip to look at her. "Oh… oh, Dani..." He sighed when he saw her un-aged state.

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine." Dani said.

"I should have tracked you down ages ago." Danny sighed. "Your ghost form seems to be fine, but something isn't right. How is your human half?"

"Not good… mutated." Dani admitted.

"Is there anything I can do? I could give you an infusion of ectoplasm or..." Danny asked.

"All the ectoplasm in the world can't fix me now." Dani told him.

"I suppose that is true." Danny said, reading her ectoplasm and her emotions to see what had gone wrong. "The only thing I could do to make you stronger is to… kill your human half. But if I did, you would no longer be yourself. I'm sorry, Dani, but you don't have the ectoplasm level to retain your personality after death. I don't want to see you as a ghost driven solely by an obsession. You really are the best you could be right now."

Dani looked up to meet his eyes, tears starting to form in her eyes. Danny's smile fell out of concern. "Danny… I really missed you." She said, pulling him into another embrace.

"Hey, I missed you too." Danny replied, returning her embrace. After several moments where the humans in the Specter Speeder just watched the two Phantoms reunite, they pulled apart and Danny took notice of the rest of the group. "What are you doing staying here? I'm sure you all want to get back to the..." He trailed off when he saw that Valerie was in the Speeder. "Valerie?"

"Hello again, Danny." Valerie said.

Danny let go of his cousin and floated over towards the Speeder. "Valerie? I'm torn."

"What?"

"I'm assuming you want to come to the Keep, but I'm not sure if I can let that happen. I'm still half human, so I'm not worried about myself. But my subjects are ghosts, my wife is a ghost, and my newborn son is a ghost. And you… well, the Red Huntress is a known enemy. I can't even separate you from your suit to put everyone's mind at ease, not without causing permanent damage."

"Danny… I swear on my own humanity that I won't even summon my suit. I'm not carrying any of my weapons and I'll cause no harm to anyone on this visit." Valerie swore. "But if you still want to send me away, I'd understand. I know you just want to protect Sam and your son. I could never fault you for that."

Danny stared at her for several moments before Dani floated up next to him. "Danny, I know that you're worried, but Valerie is good now. She might not like ghosts very much, but you know that she'll keep her word. She flew all the way across the state to bring me here to you."

Danny turned his gaze on his cousin and saw the truth in her eyes. He let out a deep sigh. "Sam and Tucker always said I was a bleeding heart. Valerie, I have chosen to trust you. But you cannot equip your suit for any reason. It's not just for our safety but yours. There are many in my realm who do not remember the Red Huntress fondly."

"I understand, Danny. I promise I won't give you a reason to doubt me." Valerie said.

"Good. Then follow me." Danny said, turning around and beginning to fly off into the Ghost Zone. "I can't wait to introduce you to Sam..." He told his cousin.

"Sam your son, or Sam your wife?" Dani asked with a laugh.

Danny joined her with a laugh. "Yeah… walked right into that one."

While they traveled, Valerie stopped paying attention to Danny and his clone, allowing them to talk in private. Instead, she paid attention to the Ghost Zone around her. She had only been in the Ghost Zone twice before, once when she had been handcuffed to Danny and once when the former Ghost King had dragged all of Amity Park into the Ghost Zone.

Danny was not paying attention to anything besides his cousin, but his presence was certainly not going unnoticed. Every ghost that past by, with the exception of the animal spirits, stopped and bowed to their king as he passed.

"Do all the ghosts follow Danny as their king?" Valerie asked.

"Well… Danny won't go into particulars. But I think that he did have trouble with some of the ghosts after he restricted travel to the human world." Maddie said. "He also says that in practice he rules over the entire Ghost Zone, but that it's far too big for him to actually extend his rule over the whole thing. But pretty much every ghost and spirit that we've met follows Danny except when there's a challenge to the throne."

"What do you mean a challenge?" Valerie asked.

"The spiritual monarchy is not like a human monarchy." Jack answered. "Danny gained the right to his kingship through his combat with the previous Ghost King. The throne is not passed through a bloodline, but to whichever ghost is the strongest and has the will to challenge the king and pass the test of the Crown of Fire."

"So Danny's son won't become king?" Valerie asked.

"Not unless he decided to challenge and beat his father in combat." Maddie said.

"Wait until you see little Samael, he's the spitting image of Danny! Well… Danny in his ghost form." Jack said excitedly.

Valerie laughed at the Fenton's happiness, but she couldn't help the thought that kept crossing her mind as they flew through the Ghost Zone. The Ghost Zone had not just a figurehead ruler in Danny. He was the actual titled king, and there were rules to this place. And not just rules but a culture that was completely independent of the human realm.

And then there were the ghosts themselves. She had always felt that because nearly all of the ghosts she had encountered were evil, they all had to be evil. But that was a sample size numbering in a couple hundred ghosts, most of them spirit animals. In the Ghost Zone was an uncounted multitude of spirits and ghosts who had never invaded the real world for causing trouble.

It was hard for Valerie to swallow, but as she past by more and more ghosts that were simply going about their existence she had to admit… perhaps she was wrong.


	15. The Invitation

**LES: I'm going to try my damnedest to get this chapter out before Mass Effect Andromeda comes out. I just know that game is going to suck the life out of me…**

 **Chapter XV: The Invitation**

* * *

As soon as Danny led the group back to Phantom's Keep, he immediately put Valerie under the careful watch of Tucker. "She promised that she won't cause any trouble, but I'd still like you to keep an eye on her. Especially when she's anywhere near Sam or my son." Danny told his best friend.

"Danny, no worries." Tucker assured his friend. "You know that Valerie is someone who keeps her word. If she says she won't cause trouble, then she won't. But, I'll keep an eye on her if it will make you happy."

Danny gave his friend a smile and a pat on the shoulder before he rushed forward to beat everyone else into the throne room. After all, it was not like they had to wait for the door to open for them to get in the room. So Danny made sure that he was the first through the door.

Like she promised, Sam was waiting for them. Valerie stared at her old school-mate in shock. Becoming a ghost had obviously changed Sam physically, but one thing that had definitely not changed was the way her face lit up with joy every time she looked at Danny. She walked down from the throne, Danny met her at the bottom of the stairs and offered his hand to her regally. She smiled and accepted, then they turned to face their guests.

"Dani, this is my wife and queen, Sam." Danny introduced.

"I've heard a lot about you, Dani." Sam said, smiling at the young ghost. "But… Danny always told me that you appeared to be twelve years old. You don't look like you've aged..." She trailed off, glancing at Danny. Valerie had no idea what was going on, but she got the sense that some sort of understanding was passing between the two.

A few seconds later, Sam's eyes widened in shock and she turned to stare right at Valerie. "Valerie? What are you doing in the Ghost Zone?" Sam asked.

Valerie slowly stepped forward, but stopped in her tracks the moment that Sam started to tense up from nerves. And then Valerie bowed to her. Perhaps not a perfect bow, but she was just imitating what she'd seen in movies about kings and queens. "Normally, I fight to protect my world from an invasion of ghosts, but today I'm a guest in your world. I would not dream of causing trouble in your home."

"Eloquently spoken." Sam said. "Then why should we not treat you with the same hospitality that you show ghostly visitors to your world?" She stepped closer to Valerie. "You are part of the reason why Danny was forced to restrict ghost travel to the human world. He has fought many battles keeping our subjects safe from you."

"If I cause trouble, then you have my permission to give me the same treatment." Valerie said. "My prejudice against ghosts, and now I do admit that it was a prejudice… was wrong. On my way here, I saw how the number of evil ghosts I've fought were dwarfed by the number of average ghosts who were just going about their lives in your realm. I can't promise that all my feelings of hatred from the past decade are all gone, but now I know I was wrong and I can work on fixing my mistakes. And Sam… I was so worried about you when you went missing." Valerie met Sam's green eyes. "I know that becoming friends will probably be impossible with our… history..." Sam's eyes narrowed, remembering the brief amount of time when Danny and Valerie had dated in high school. "But I don't want you as an enemy. And I hope that one day we can be friends."

Sam had to admit to herself after a moment of thought that Valerie's words made sense, and there was no way for Sam to turn down her offer without revealing her own lingering jealousy over Valerie being Danny's ex. Just because she had the strength of character and the level of ectoplasm to avoid descending into obsession didn't mean that sometimes old hurts could still cause pain for ghosts. "Then are you welcome as long as you stay in peace."

"Dani, would you like to come up to meet my son?" Danny asked.

"Yes, of course." Dani said.

"Go on, you two." Sam said, smiling at them.

Danny took his clone's hand and began to lead her up towards his room. "We should give them a few moments together." Sam said.

"If you don't mind me saying, you look pretty good for just having a baby." Valerie said.

"One of the good things about being a ghost? No pregnancy or childbirth." Sam said.

"Really? Then how go ghosts have children?" Valerie asked.

"We made one by combining our cores and feeding it ectoplasm." Sam answered.

"A ghost's core is pretty much their soul." Tucker explained.

Valerie realized she had a lot to learn.

* * *

(Phantoms Keep, the King's Chambers)

Danny led his young clone into his suite. Dani stared around in shock at the opulence that was around her. Even for the short amount of time that she had lived with Vlad, she'd never seen the sort of wealth that was around her. But, then again, Vlad's idea of decorating was an explosion of green and gold for his beloved Green Bay Packers.

"Wow, as the king you must be pretty wealthy." Dani muttered.

"Not in the way that humans think of wealth." Danny replied. "Almost everything you see around you has been formed directly out of ectoplasm, and is only limited to my imagination. So if I imagined having a pile of precious gemstones materialize in my room, it happens." To prove his point, a pile of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and other gemstones suddenly appeared. "So I'm pretty much as wealthy as I want to be. I do have a little bit of a reputation to live up to in this regard. One of my titles is 'Hades, Lord of the Infinite Realms'. In Greek mythology, Hades was also called 'The Rich One'." He walked over to a door and held it open for Dani. "Now, here is something that cannot compare to all the wealth in the world."

Dani walked into the room, and stepped up to the cradle. She gasped in delight when she saw the baby. He really did look like a baby Danny Phantom. Except Samael was asleep, so she couldn't tell the eye color. "What color are his eyes?" Dani whispered.

"Green. But that's not a shock considering both mine and Sam's ghost forms have green eyes." Danny answered.

Tears started to drop from Dani's eyes. "He's amazing..." She whispered through her tears.

"Dani, is something else wrong?" Danny asked.

"I just… I don't want to make things weird between us." Dani said. "I know our relationship is all ready weird enough, what with me being a female clone of you created by your archenemy. I didn't dwell on it until I heard that you had a child, but ever since Vlad betrayed me, I always secretly felt that you were my father instead of Vlad." She admitted.

"Dani, are you asking me to be your father?" Danny asked.

"I know it's weird. You've always called me your cousin, but..." Dani was suddenly cut off when Danny pulled her into an embrace.

"Dani, I called you my cousin because I was fifteen years old at the time. I was much too young to even begin to think of myself as a father. So, yes, it was easier for me to think of you as my cousin. But I'm older now, and hopefully a little wiser. And if you want a fatherly relationship with me, then I would be fine with that. Fatherhood doesn't scare me so much anymore..." He trailed off with a smile towards his son.

Now Dani was fully in tears, pressing her face into Danny's chest. "Daddy..." She whispered against him.

He smiled when he heard her call him 'daddy'. It was like it was fulfilling some part of him that had always known that Dani would be his honorary daughter one day, and now that day was here. "I just realized… I've gained a son and a daughter on the same day." Danny laughed to himself.

"Nervous?" Dani asked, looking up at him with a smirk.

"Not as much as you'd think." Danny replied. "Being the king scares me a lot more sometimes."

"Speaking of being king, what are you going to do about Vlad?" Dani asked. "I've heard about him running for president."

"Right now, I'm trying to improve the relationship between humans and ghosts. For several years, I have been forced to limit ghosts traveling into the human world, so that humans were not being attacked by ghosts as much. But that cannot last much longer. I'm all ready working with Walker to set up a special task force to capture ghosts who start to cause destruction in the human world with the aim of bringing them back to the Ghost Zone for judgment. That way, I'll be able to allow ghosts to travel freely again back and forth under the understanding that they follow certain laws while in the human world." At first, Danny had reservations about trusting Walker with something so important. After all, he'd been on the receiving end of Walker's usual 'capture' methods. But, after putting Walker on his council, he came to realize that the ghost just needed a finer set of rules. Walker, after all, was obsessed with law and order, and his chaos had been a reflection of the disorder of the Ghost Zone's code in the aftermath of Pariah Dark's rule. Basically, Walker's ideas of punishment were medieval because the laws he followed were still medieval. Once Danny had changed a few laws, Walker had become a valuable member of his council. "I'm actually going to meet with the current president in a few days to discuss a mutually beneficial relationship between humans and ghosts."

"But what could humans have to offer ghosts?" Dani asked, confused.

"Not being destroyed by them would be a great place to start." Danny said with a laugh, and Dani joined him.

* * *

(Throne Room)

Perhaps fifteen minutes after Danny left with is clone, Valerie was inspecting the room she was in. Of course, she eventually came across the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. She turned to look back at the group. "What is is?" She asked.

"It's the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep." Tucker answered, walking over to join her next to the ancient relic. "If any ghost is locked inside, they will never wake up again unless they are released. This was the artifact that kept Pariah Dark locked up for centuries."

"So why does Danny have it in his throne room?" Valerie asked. "Surely an artifact this powerful and dangerous should be hidden away somewhere?"

"Danny keeps it close to him on purpose." Tucker replied. "He keeps it within eye sight of the throne at all times, so that he's always reminded that there are ways to bring down even the most powerful of ghosts. Danny's highly focused on keeping himself on the straight and narrow. That's also why the Ghost of Death is also never far away."

"Ghost of..." Valerie gasped. "You don't mean the Grim Reaper, do you?"

"Yeah, but you don't have to worry about him. He's actually a pretty cool guy. Sure, his world view is a little twisted from his job (he sees death as helping someone), but he does take his job very seriously and does not abuse his powers." Tucker said.

"Man, I can't believe how badly I misjudged Danny Phantom all these years." Valerie sighed.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, almost no one knew the truth about Danny for years. Well… no one knew outside the Ghost Zone. Pretty much every single ghost knew about Danny."

"Is that why ghosts always used to focus their attacks on Phantom?" Valerie asked.

"Yeah, the ghosts were threatened by his strength and abilities. And now we can see why. Danny became strong enough to become the king of ghosts." Tucker said.

"So he keeps the sarcophagus close, a sort of Sword of Damocles." Valerie commented to herself. "Tucker, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"You knew about Danny's abilities from the beginning, right?" Tucker nodded. "Was it difficult?"

"Do you mean was it difficult to stand by my friend's side when he needed me?" Tucker asked. "The answer would be no. Danny's been my best friend almost as long as I can remember, so it would take a lot more than a lab accident and ghost powers to make me turn my back on him. Now, if your question is was it difficult to give Danny the help he needed… yes, it was. Ghost powers didn't come with a manual. Every single day brought a new challenge: new abilities that Danny needed to learn and master, learning everything Sam and I could learn about first aid and treating all of his injuries since Danny would always refuse a hospital in fear that they would discover what he is, and trying to keep him together mentally when he struggled with most of the town thinking he was a villain."

"Including me." Valerie sighed. "When Danny and I… when we dated, did he ever talk about revealing his secret to me?"

Tucker sighed. "I know you probably want me to tell you that he was planning to reveal himself to you, but the truth is that it was not part of his plans. He did care about you, a lot, and he was terrified that you would hate him even more than you did if he revealed his secret to you."

"Well, I guess that's it then. Even without Sam in the picture, it wouldn't have worked out." Valerie sighed. "You can't say that you loved someone if you only love half of who they are."

"If it makes you feel better, then at least you're one-up on Paulina." Tucker commented.

Despite herself, Valerie smiled a little. "But pretty much anything is better than being a Lois Lane wannabe."

"You don't… still have feelings for Danny, do you?" Tucker asked.

"Not in the way I did before." Valerie said. "And I mean that both ways. I used to love Fenton, but I don't anymore. I used to hate Phantom, but I don't anymore. He is reluctant to trust me, and I can't blame him. Right now, I guess I see him as an ally against Vlad. Maybe someday we can go back to being friends."

Tucker and Valerie trailed off in their conversation when Danny and his clone came back into the room. Valerie smiled when she saw the big grin on Dani's face. Obviously, things had gone well between the two halfas. Valerie knew she had nothing to worry about, because the Danny she remembered would be kind enough to welcome the lonely girl into his family.

"Val!" Dani yelled excitedly, rushing over to the woman. "Danny says he's going to be my dad now!"

"Wow, really?" Tucker asked, staring at his friend in shock.

Danny shrugged. "Well, she is my clone, so she's always technically been my daughter. I was just too scared to admit it back then."

"Then welcome to the family, Dani." Sam said, smiling.

"Wow. I guess that makes you my mother, then. I've never had a mother before." Dani said.

"Son, where is Samael?" Jack asked, holding up his camera.

"Sleeping." Danny said, and Jack's face fell slightly. "It is a common side-effect for every new ghost, no matter how they are made."

"Then we'll just start the baby shower while we wait." Maddie said, smiling. Of course, it was going to be a relatively intimate affair with just family and friends. "Besides, we can also celebrate Dani becoming an official part of our family."

As the party started, Valerie couldn't help but feel a little left out. Dani, of course, was very friendly and the elder Fentons had no reservations about including Valerie in the conversation. But almost everyone else had known Danny's secret for so long and knew all that she had put him through with her misplaced anger.

In fact, she almost didn't notice when a couple of new ghosts entered the room. She stared at the first one in shock.

Tucker noticed the look on her face. "Yeah, that's the spirit of death, all right. But you don't have to worry. He doesn't even have his scythe on him right now, so he's less dangerous than Danny."

"But if he's the embodiment of death, shouldn't we all be keeling over right now?" Valerie asked. But, then again, she was in the Ghost Zone. Would she even notice if she turned into a ghost right now?

"That power is in the scythe." Tucker explained. "Don't worry about it. He's not here to kill anymore. He's very serious about his job, and only takes those whose time has come."

"And who is the other ghost?" Valerie asked, hoping for something less shocking. She was wrong.

"Oh, that's Clockwork. He's the ghostly master of time." Tucker said. "He's also been Danny's ghost mentor for almost as long as he's had his powers."

"He controls time?" Valerie asked, shocked.

"Well, I'm not sure if 'controls' is the right word. He keeps an eye on the time stream, always looking into the future so that he could prevent disasters before they happen. That's how he and Danny met."

"Really?" Valerie asked.

"Yeah. There was a brief time when we were fifteen that Danny was on the path to a dark future. But Clockwork stepped in and saved Danny's life and the whole world's future. Danny's seen him as something of a ghost father ever since."

"I don't understand, what dark future?" Valerie asked.

"I don't know all the details." Tucker admitted. "Most of my memories of what happened were erased. But I guess there was a timeline where everyone that Danny loved died, and he turned evil because of it and nearly destroyed the world. But that was a long time ago, and that future is long forgotten."

However, before any more conversation could happen, everyone trailed off when another ghost entered the room. It was Skulker. It took all of Valerie's discipline to not summon her suit for battle, but she remembered her promise and stayed as she was. Besides, Skulker was not so big a threat that Danny couldn't handle it by himself.

But, then again, judging by the way that Danny calmly walked over to Skulker, they were not the enemies they once were. "Skulker, what brings you here today?"

Skulker bowed to Danny, and then extended a hand, holding out an envelope. "I have a message from Plasmius, your Majesty."

"Plasmius? I haven't heard directly from him since my coronation." Danny commented. He accepted the envelope from Skulker's hand. "Thank you, you may return to your island."

Skulker bowed again, and flew out of the room. Danny opened the envelope and read the message that was inside.

"What does Plasmius want, Danny?" Sam asked.

"He wants to meet me before my meeting with the President." Danny said. "I doubt he wants to cause trouble, though, because he wants to meet me in a public place. A theater… he's given me a ticket to some play and wants me to meet him there."

"What's the play?" Tucker asked curiously.

"I don't know..." Danny trailed off when he found the ticket in the envelope and found the name of the play. Danny had to roll his eyes. "Real subtle, Plasmius."

* * *

 **LES: So I finished this chapter two days after my intended release time, but at least I've got it finished. Thanks to me being a night-owl and my rule of not playing video games after 11 at night. That gave me the time to finish up this chapter. The next updates might be slow, since ME: Andromeda is out and I'm currently playing that game. (And enjoying it, so far…) What play did Vlad invite Danny to? Well, you'll just have to wait and see...**

 **Hint: It's not _Phantom of the Opera_.**


	16. The Play

**LES: I got several guesses about which play Vlad invited Danny to see. All of them "Phantom of the Opera". Nope, not Phantom of the Opera! The real play is a musical that is also based on a French novel. The musical is not very well known, but the novel certainly is. Um… spoilers for a two hundred year old novel...**

* * *

 **Chapter XVI: The Play**

* * *

Danny purposefully arrived at the theater after the official start time of the play, so that he would not cause such a massive fuss. In the weeks since his announcement to the world, pretty much everyone recognized the Ghost King and the once savior of Amity Park, even as far away from Amity as Vlad's home state of Wisconsin.

All the stragglers and the staff of the theater could not help but stare as he entered the building. He was about to flash his ticket to the host, but he was simply waved through with wide eyes.

"Excuse me, but could you direct me to this seat?" Danny asked, putting on a smile and hoping that he was not too intimidating for the theater's host.

"Oh, of course… your Majesty." The host said, staring at the ticket. "This is one of our private boxes, owned by… ah. It is a gift to one of our most generous donors." He bowed nervously. "Right this way." Danny let him lead the way into the darkened theater and up towards the private boxes. Once they reached the specified box, the young man knocked lightly on the door. "Mr. Masters, your guest as arrived."

"Send him in." Vlad said from inside the private box. The host opened the door and Danny stepped inside. The theater had all ready darkened since the play was underway, but Danny was not concerned. He was more focused on the man sitting in one of the few chairs, watching the play with interest.

"Vlad Masters." Danny said, moving forward and taking the seat next to Vlad. Thankfully, the box was private enough and far enough away from everyone else that they could have a private conversation without disturbing the other theater patrons.

"Daniel, you have certainly changed a great deal since I last saw you." Vlad said, looking sideways at the young man in the seat next to him. "Becoming the king has obviously agreed with you."

"I grew up. It happens." Danny commented shortly. "But it seems that you've hardly changed at all. You're choice of having me meet you during this play is not very subtle at all."

"I don't see what you mean. A man can enjoy the classics." Vlad commented.

"Not just any old classic." Danny commented. "But the most famous story about revenge of all time: _T_ _he Count of Monte Cristo_." Danny turned his attention down on the stage, where the actor who played the lead, Edmond Dantes, was having a conversation with Abbe Faria, as they worked together to uncover the identities of the men who had Dantes wrongly convicted of treason and thrown in prison.

"Ah, you are familiar with the work of Alexandre Dumas?" Vlad asked, turning a shocked gaze on Danny.

"The Ghost Zone is full of former writers, play-wrights, and lovers of the arts." Danny said. "There are always productions going on to keep them happy and feeding their obsession. I believe that the Ghost Writer arranged an unabridged performance of _The Count of Monte Cristo_ for the fifth anniversary of my coronation. Alexandre Dumas was in the royal box with myself and Sam."

"Impressive, I'm not afraid to admit that I am jealous." Vlad said. " _The Count of Monte Cristo_ has been a favorite of mine for many years now."

"I can see why." Danny commented. "The story of a man who is betrayed by those he considers friends, losing years of his life to false imprisonment, breaks out of prison and becomes fabulously wealthy, and then returns to take his revenge on those that betrayed him and their children. With a few changes, the story sounds very familiar."

"I'll admit that there are more than a few passing similarities between myself and Dantes." Vlad admitted. "But we are always drawn to those characters whom we can see ourselves in, wouldn't you agree?"

Danny met Vlad's eyes for a moment, before he turned his attention back on the scene below. The two men watched the play in silence for a while, witnessing Edmond Dantes' rage as he came to realize that his former friends had the motive to imprison him, his escape plan, and then recovering of the treasure on Monte Cristo.

Just as Edmond Dantes made the transition from Dantes into the persona of the Count, a musical number started up. It was a rock song, a song of fire and unending hatred as the Count swore revenge on those who had wronged him: Gerard de Villefort, Danglars, Fernand Mondego de Morcerf, and Mercedes.

* * *

(Song: "Hell To Your Doorstep" -The Count of Monte Cristo Musical. Lryics at the end of the chapter.)

* * *

Once the song ended and the players prepared for the next scene while the audience clapped, Vlad sighed. "No matter how alike we may seem overall, Dantes is a fool in this moment."

"What do you mean?" Danny asked.

"Mercedes had nothing to do with his betrayal. She was, at most, a victim of circumstance and was forced to make a hard decision to avoid being alone in a time period which would not be kind on single women."

"She is still the one who made the choice to stop fighting for her lover and willingly falling into the arms of the next man who came along." Danny replied. "It may have been hard, but she didn't have to marry Fernand. She was just too afraid of being alone to keep fighting for Dantes. She could have kept fighting. Dantes' boss fought against Dantes' imprisonment for so long that it ruined him financially and politically."

"She gave up because she believed he was dead. Fernand told her that Dantes died in prison." Vlad said.

"Yes, she was told that her fiancé was dead by a man who had openly courted her in the past. Why would she ever suspect Fernand of lying?" Danny asked sarcastically.

"You would be surprised the types of lies that a clever liar could make one believe." Vlad said. "Not to mention the lengths one would go through to keep the illusion of a lie going. After all, you are right. Dantes' former boss knew he was in prison nearly the whole time he was there. Mercedes could have found out, but Fernand kept the truth from her to make her believe that marriage to him was the only way for her life to continue."

Danny turned his gaze on Vlad. "Are we still talking about the play, or you?" He asked.

Vlad remained silent for several minutes before he responded. "I know what you think of me, Daniel. You've made it very clear in the past. But I have never lied about one thing. I do love Maddie. I've loved her almost from the moment when I first met her. But then the accident happened… I was in the hospital for years. Neither she nor Jack visited me, not once. How do you think I felt when I finally emerged a healthy, albeit changed, man to find that my former friend had taken advantage of my misfortune to steal away the one woman to have brought me happiness?"

"But unlike Mercedes, who was engaged to Dantes before his imprisonment, neither of my parents knew about how you felt before the accident." Danny commented.

Vlad let out a soft laugh. "Perhaps I never came out and said the words, but I was young. Not nearly as mature as I am now. I dare-say I was just as obvious about my feelings as you were with Miss Man… oh, forgive me. I meant Mrs Phantom." Vlad corrected himself.

"Even with as obvious as we were, neither of us still had any real idea that we were in love with each other until I got the courage to confess to her." Danny said. "Even the obvious can be hard to see when you are too close to the situation."

"Your mother is a very intelligent woman." Vlad replied. "But I don't begrudge her for her choice to have a life with Jack while I was incapacitated. After all, she is a kind woman with a lot of love to give. If she needed Jack to..."

Danny's eyes flashed green as he glared at Vlad. "Now you've taken this analogy too far, Vlad. Don't compare my mother to someone like Mercedes. Mercedes is a weak character who hardly has an identity beyond the men in her life. At first, it's Edmond, and then Fernand, and then at the end when she has lost both she ends up in a nunnery because she has no idea what to do with herself. My mother didn't marry my father just because he was there. And if she hadn't loved my father, she wouldn't have married him. My mother is not afraid to be her own person."

"Ah, forgive me." Vlad said. "Of course I didn't mean to imply that Maddie was in any way dependent on others. You and I have both been on the receiving end of her abilities to know that." Vlad turned his attention briefly back to the stage, which was now a scene in Rome when Edmond Dantes, now under the guise of the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, had just met the son of Fernand and Mercedes.

The play continued, and the two continued to discuss various moments of the play, until Danny noticed an important character who seemed to be completely absent from the play. "Where's Haydee?" He asked.

"She is often cut from most adaptions of the book." Vlad replied.

"But… then how is the Count able to prove that Fernand achieved his military rank through deception?" Danny asked. "It is her testimony as the daughter of the man that Fernand served under and betrayed that led to his utter humiliation in court and his eventual suicide. And, most importantly, how does the Count find happiness in the end? Does he simply wind up alone and bitter?"

"Unlike the original novel, most adaptions of _The Count of Monte Cristo_ end with Edmond Dantes starting over his relationship with Mercedes."

Danny stared at Vlad. "You're kidding me, right?"

"What's wrong with wanting a happy ending, Daniel?" Vlad asked.

"The novel does have a happy ending." Danny answered. "The Count gets revenge on those that betrayed him, gives up on his plans to punish the children of his betrayers because he realizes that in doing so he'll become what he hates the most, and sails off with his new lover, Haydee, to live in wealth and comfort for the rest of their days."

"And he leaves a trail of devastation in his wake." Vlad said. "As you said, the woman he loves loses everything when her husband's secrets are revealed and both she and her son are left to rebuild their lives from scratch: her by joining the church and her son by joining the military… not as an officer but as a common foot soldier."

"Which is a lot better off then the Count originally planned for them." Danny reminded Vlad. "He was prepared to kill Fernand and Mercedes's son in their duel."

"Danny, why are you so against the idea of first love?" Vlad asked.

"I'm not." Danny replied. "But just like any love, you have to work at it. Love doesn't just work. You have to make it work. Mercedes abandoned her relationship with Dantes as soon as it became hard. Haydee might have stepped into the Count's life at a later point, but there were only a few people as loyal to him as she was."

"She was a glorified slave." Vlad countered.

"A slave who was treated for all intents and purposes like a princess. She was pretty much a slave in name only, because he bought her from a slaver. He offered her freedom numerous times, but she always refused because she was loyal to the Count." Danny replied. "That's why it was Haydee he sailed off with in the end, not Mercedes. And that was the point. It wasn't about regaining a flawed first love. The Count found real love and loyalty in Haydee." For the first time, Vlad seemed to be without words. Danny glanced at the elder halfa, and was shocked to see the brief flash of sorrow in his eyes.

Danny turned his attention back on the play to give Vlad a few moments to himself. While he watched, his mind wandered. It occurred to Danny that this was the longest time that he'd ever been in Vlad's company without throwing a punch. Of course, they couldn't start fighting in the middle of a theater, but it was still something. Their talk wasn't even that heated. Sure, it had taken an emotional turn since Vlad seemed to equate himself to Edmond Dantes and Danny's mother to Mercedes.

When Danny glanced at Vlad again, he seemed to have composed himself. "Perhaps..." Danny began softly. "It's time for you to let go of Mercedes, and to find your Haydee."

From the look that Vlad shot him, Danny knew that he had just toed the limit on Vlad's restraint to not punch him in the face. "What would you know about it?" Vlad growled at him.

"I know that no matter how much you pine for unrequited love, you can only cause yourself pain by clinging to it. It will feel much better to just let go and find someone who returns your feelings." Danny said.

"And I suppose you think it's just that simple, right? To let go of feelings that I've cherished for most of my life?" Vlad glared at him.

"No, it's never simple. But it can be done." Danny said. "I don't understand, by holding onto your feelings with an iron grip, you do nothing but cause yourself pain. Why?"

"Why? Why you ask?" Vlad growled at him. "It's because I love her, and it's only grown stronger as the years have passed. Seeing Maddie smile is the only happiness I have left in my life anymore."

"So even your big plans to run for president are not for your happiness?" Danny asked.

Vlad snorted. "No one ever runs for president for happiness." He said. "And don't think I don't know what you are doing, with your meetings with the President and the UN. You may have gotten wiser, Daniel, but you are still incredibly transparent."

"I'm not trying to hide my plans from you." Danny said. "My plans are just as they seem: to show humans that they have little to fear from ghosts. Just like your plans are to seize control on all the resources of the United States in a bid to gain control of both the human world and the Ghost Zone."

Vlad turned his disinterested eyes back on the play. "Sure, you can believe that if it makes you feel better."

 _Ah, so there are deeper layers to this plan._ Danny realized. Vlad's plans always did have layers. But, the question was, what secret objective could be so big that Vlad would hide it behind 'taking over two whole worlds'?

Danny stood up. "I don't think I'm very interested in seeing a fan fiction-version ending of this play. Have a good evening, Vlad." Danny said as he bowed towards the elder halfa and walked out of the box.

On his way back out of the theater, Danny couldn't help but feel sorry for his old arch-enemy. His obsession with Maddie Fenton had grown so strong that he didn't even know that he was capable of being above that. A ghost that strong didn't have to be a slave to his obsession, but Vlad had willingly let it consume him. Danny almost wished that he could force Vlad into speaking with his sister. The guy had some issues that needed to be worked on.

The theater's hose waved Danny out the door with a "Good evening, your Majesty."

Danny took one last look at the marque above the theater, displaying the ongoing play as _The Count of Monte Cristo._ Edmond Dantes had found his happiness at the end. Vlad only had to let go to find his own.

With a sigh, Danny opened up a portal back home and stepped in.

* * *

 **LES: Man, this was like being in English class again. _The Count of Monte Cristo_ is a book I read about a year ago, and I grew to like it a great deal. On reflection, if Butch Hartman came out and said that he partially based the idea of Vlad Masters on Edmond Dantes, I wouldn't be surprised at all. But, then again, pretty much every single revenge story that came after _The Count of Monte Cristo_ is inspired by it in some way.**

 **EDIT: While I was at work today, I felt like I should edit this chapter really quick to add some info for those who are totally unfamiliar with the story of _The Count of Monte Cristo_.**

 **Basic synopsis: The sailor Edmond Dantes is betrayed by those he considered friends and as a result spends over a decade falsely imprisoned. When he manages to escape he uses the knowledge of a friend he made in prison to find the location of a lost treasure that makes him incredibly wealthy. Ten years later, he returns to Paris as the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo to enact his revenge on those who ruined his life.**

 **Edmond Dantes/The Count of Monte Cristo: The main character. He was just an ordinary sailor before he was accidentally tangled up in a plot by Napoleon Bonaparte, which his friends use as an excuse to lock him up for treason against the royal family of France. Once he returns to Paris ten years after his prison break, he only goes by the name of The Count of Monte Cristo, named after the island where he found his treasure. He successfully fools his old friends and dedicate his fortune to ruining their lives.**

 **Abbe Faria: A priest that was locked in prison with Edmond Dantes. Dantes and Faria became friends after Faria accidentally tunneled into his cell in an escape attempt. Faria and Dantes worked on their tunnel together, while Faria educated Dantes in as many subjects as possible. Faria was the one who told Dantes the location of the treasure on Monte Cristo, as well as using logic to find out who had betrayed Dantes. Faria died before the tunnel was complete, but Dantes managed to escape by taking Faria's place when his body bag was thrown out to sea.**

 **Gerard de Villefort: One of Dante's betrayers. He was the lawyer who was in change of Dantes' case. He believed Dantes' story about being innocent, but the evidence that Dantes brought forward to prove his innocence proved that Villefort's father was the true guilty party. To protect his family name, Villefort destroyed the evidence and had Dantes sent to prison without a trial.**

 **Danglars: One of Dante's betrayers. He was a ship-mate of Dantes on the same crew. He got jealous of Dantes when after the death of their captain the owner of the ship made Dantes the new captain instead of him. Dantes was the first mate, but Danglars felt he didn't have enough experience. He was the one who had the knowledge of Dantes' brief meeting with Bonaparte which led to his charges of treason.**

 **Fernand Mondego de Morcerf: The last of Dante's betrayers, and the defacto ring leader. He was in love with Mercedes, and pissed off that she was engaged to Dantes instead of him. So he took Danglars knowledge and tipped the authorities off about Dantes' meeting with Bonaparte.**

 **Mercedes: She was engaged to Edmond Dantes and after holding out hope for Dantes' release for several months, Fernand lied to her saying that Edmond had died in prison. She married Fernand and had a son with him.**

 **Haydee: Officially, she is the Count's slave, but she's treated like a princess under his care. She is a key figure in Dantes' plan to destroy Fernand. She was a member of a foreign royal family that Fernand was tasked to protect while in the military. However, he betrayed Haydee's father, and sold Haydee's mother and herself into slavery. The Count found and bought her. At the end of the novel, she becomes the Count's lover. But she is often cut out of adaptions of the story.**

* * *

 **Lyrics for "Hell To Your Doorstep"**

 _The world is a place  
Where the villains wear a smile on their face  
While they take what you can never replace  
Stolen moments gone forever  
Well, tables can turn  
As my enemies will soon enough learn  
I will strike a match and then watch them burn  
On the pyre of obsession  
You run 'til you drop  
Chasing an advantage  
You'll pay any price  
If you think it's free_

 _I will carry hell to your doorstep  
I will make you pay  
You will reap the hate you've sown  
On my judgement day  
Sleepless nights and days of damnation  
Soon and nevermore  
I will bring the Chateau D'if  
Knocking upon your door_

 _And love is a lie  
Swearing that no matter what it won't die  
Disappearing like a star in the sky  
In the hot light of morning  
But, what do I care?  
There are women to be had everywhere  
First, there's retribution I must prepare  
Mighty vengeance is mine  
I have a nice show  
That will tempt you onward  
And just when you're sure  
That the prize is yours_

 _I'll deliver hell to your doorstep  
Dressed in rich facade  
Then I'll burn you to the ground  
Like an angry god  
Once you're in my shining cathedral  
Heed the tolling bell  
It's the final sound you hear  
As you descend to hell_

 _Fall down on your knees  
Fall down and let me hear you pray  
Fall down on your knees  
'Til I can hear you bargaining, scheming  
Begging and screaming to pay_

 _I will carry hell to your doorstep  
You will rue the day  
You will reap the hate you've sown  
No matter how hard you pray  
It's a place without any mercy  
Fashioned in cold blood  
Stones of fear and stones of doubt  
No forgiveness  
No way out  
Only justice  
Then amen!_

* * *

 **If there's anything else that needs clarification, just let me know.**


	17. Meeting the President

**LES: To the reviewer known as Animallover: You left me a question on Chapter 12, but I'm unable to reply to you personally because either you were not signed into the site or you just didn't want to. So, forgive me other readers for this giant AN, but I'll just answer Animallover's question here. Asexuality has a fairly wide range of people who consider themselves to be asexuals. My personal experience with asexuality is that I'm an asexual and also an aromantic, which means that I don't desire romance or sex with any gender. But what I am is pretty rare, even among asexuals. What more asexuals are are hetero-romantic/homo-romantic/bi-romantic. Which basically means that they don't feel sexual desire, but they desire romance from either the different, same, or either gender. Jazz specifically falls under asexual/hetero-romantic. If you are an asexual like I am, I would not want to kiss someone, because I have no desire for romance. But I would not want to kiss someone because I would not be romantically involved with people to begin with. It's different for asexuals who still have romantic desires. If an asexual person is in a relationship with someone, they'd feel fine with kissing them. Asexuals could even have sex with their partners if they wished. Whether the asexual is willing to do that for their romantic partners is completely up to the people within the relationship. The most important thing to remember is that asexuality is like any other sexual orientation. Just because a person is a certain orientation doesn't mean they are not physically capable of acting against that orientation. So, let's say that Jazz gets a boyfriend. She would be perfectly fine with kissing him, even going up as far as making out. But if her boyfriend wanted sex, she would have to make the decision based entirely on whether or not she felt intimate enough with him to be willing to have sex with him. I hope that answered your questions about asexuality. And, no, I'm not offended by your questions. Asking questions is how you learn in the first place.**

* * *

 **Chapter XVII: Meeting The President**

* * *

Thing were going rather crazy at Washington DC. Pretty much any visit from foreign royalty is a big deal for the center of American government, but this was not just a visit from any old royalty. This was a visit from the king of, perhaps, an entirely new sentient species. Outside of Amity Park, ghosts were just as rare and mysterious as ever, so it was not a shock that word about the time of Danny's meeting with the President of the United States had leaked out leading to the flock of paparazzi attempting to climb the metal fence onto the White House lawn.

A green portal suddenly appeared on the lawn and King Phantom stepped through in full view of the waiting secret service agents and the paparazzi. Even in the morning sunlight, the flashing lights of their cameras were clearly visible.

The secret service agents walked over to meet Danny. The first one to reach him gave a stiff bow, but never took his searching eyes off Danny. "Good morning, your Majesty. If you will follow me, please."

"Of course." Danny said, falling into step behind the secret service agent. Two more brought up the rear, and Danny could feel their hard eyes on him, and sense their nervousness.

Danny didn't mind their nervousness. After all, he was probably the first ghost they had ever seen, and on top of that he was the king of all ghosts. They had no idea what he was capable of. Off in the distance, Danny noticed some agents of the Guys in White. They did not approach him, nor did they threaten him. They were aiming a device at him that Danny was very familiar with: a device to measure how powerful a ghost was. Danny all ready knew from Valerie that he maxed out the scale, so he was not surprised when the agent's faces paled in shock.

In an attempt to put them more at ease, he pretended like he hadn't noticed the Guys in White and continued following the secret service. They led Danny into the White House and through various corridors. Various aides and other people under the employ of the President all jumped out of the way as Danny and his escort came through. All the employees learned early on to not get in the way of the secret service.

As they walked, Danny was a little shocked to see that the secret service agent did not have a conventional sidearm holstered at his hip. Instead, he was carrying a small ghost ray. It shocked Danny, but did not alarm him. After all, he wouldn't even be able to feel a ghost ray that size. He couldn't even feel anything below a level 10 ectoplasm blast, and it would take somewhere in the neighborhood of a level 15 blast to cause him actual pain.

Danny just accepted it as part of the secret service agent's job. It was their job to protect the President and, until some sort of deal was made between the United States and the Ghost Zone, Danny knew that he couldn't be anything more than a potential threat.

Danny took the time, instead, to look around at his surroundings. Here was the center of American government. Portraits hung on all of the walls, of past presidents and other important people and events in American history. When the agent stopped outside of the Oval Office and asked Danny to wait while he alerted the president to his visitor, Danny realized that he had no idea who the president was these days. He had been in the Ghost Zone long enough for at least one two-term president to take office and then leave.

Oh well, hopefully the president would be kind enough to introduce himself.

The agent in front of Danny held his hand up to his ear piece, listening to the instructions that were fed to him. After a moment, the agent nodded and stepped forward to open the door for Danny.

Danny had seen plenty of pictures of the famous Oval Office, but never really imagined that he would be called here for a meeting with the leader of the free world. The President himself sat at his desk, with two more secret service agents at his back. The President was not someone that Danny recognized, but he had been eighteen when he left the human world and not at all interested in politics, at least not enough to know who might be a big enough deal to become President in ten years. To Danny, he had the same stern face as any of the presidents he remembered from his youth.

"Good morning, King Phantom." The President said, standing up and offering his hand to Danny. Danny relaxed a little and took the President's hand in a firm handshake. "I am President Hartman, and it is an honor to meet you."

"The honor is mine." Danny replied.

"Please, have a seat." President Hartman gestured towards one of the seats in front of the desk and Danny accepted his offer. "First of all, thank you for agreeing to meet with me today. Secondly, please forgive me for my curiosity. You see, when I was a Congressman, Amity Park was never part of the cities that I represented, and I previously did not believe that ghosts were real." President Hartman trailed off, hoping to god that King Phantom had never heard of him calling the Senator who represented Amity Park a crackpot because he had continuously requested more and more federal funds for ghost attack repairs.

"Don't worry about it." The Ghost King said. "I am well aware that outside of Amity Park hardly any Americans have seen ghosts, and almost never like that city has."

"Why Amity Park?" The President asked.

"Amity Park has always sat upon a natural rift between our worlds." Danny explained. "It is rifts like these that has allowed ghosts to come through to the human world for thousands of years. However, while the rift in Amity Park was remarkably strong, it was not perfectly stable. Ghosts would lose energy traveling through the rift, so they were not able to appear at full strength when they arrived in Amity Park. That all changed over a decade ago once the Fenton family invented the Ghost Zone portal, which created a stable doorway between the human world and the Ghost Zone. Just the presence of the portal stabilized the natural rift under Amity Park, which allowed ghosts to come through more regularly and with a larger amount of power than before."

"According to my debriefing, you appeared in Amity Park yourself not long after the Fenton's portal was activated." President Hartman commented.

Danny nodded. "That's true. I had never been in the human world before that, and the portal made it much easier to travel here."

"That's the time when the people of Amity Park still considered you a villain." One of the agents commented, and the President shot him a look that clearly said to be quiet.

"Yes… there were still unfortunate mistakes in the early years of my haunting Amity Park." Danny admitted. "I was still a very young ghost at the time, and did not have much control of my powers. Accidents happened. Sometimes I misjudged the situation or sometimes other forces took control of me. But I am much stronger now, especially since I became the king."

"Speaking of, I agreed to hear out what you have to say in regards to an alliance between humans and ghosts." President Hartman said. "Although I do have to warn you that I have less than a year of being the President left. So I can't make any promises for the long-term."

"That is all right." Danny said. "I understand. I am offering to you the knowledge of thousands of years of our culture, and our help if the United States, and by extension, the rest of the world should need us."

"And what do you want in return?" President Hartman asked.

"To be understood." Danny replied. "There are many humans that fear us, which is understandable considering the sort of ghosts that have come through Amity Park's rift on a daily basis. I hope that you can see from my example at least that ghosts are not universally evil masses of unfeeling ectoplasm."

"No. You certainly seem to have intelligence on par with a human." The President commented.

Danny forced himself to not be offended by the statement. Danny had been given an encyclopedia's worth of knowledge when he claimed the Crown of Fire. And even removing Danny from the equation, there were hundreds of ghosts whose knowledge far out-striped any human in terms of knowledge. But, if the President was under the impression that they were unintelligent masses of ectoplasm before today, it was at least a start.

"I do admit that I was concerned about all the anti-ecto legislation that Congress tried to make into law." Danny said.

"Ah, now that is something we both definitely agree on." President Hartman said. "Even Amity Park has stopped requesting so much federal funds in the last few years from the decrease in ghost attacks."

"Ghost attacks decreased because I began to control ghosts leaving the Ghost Zone for the human world." Danny said. "Most ghosts, especially the ones that attacked Amity Park, lost their privilege to travel to the human world. But I can't keep the rifts closed for much longer. But I urge you not to worry, Mr. President, for I am forming my own laws on how to deal with troublesome ghosts in the future."

"And how would you do that?" The President asked.

"With your permission, I would allow my police force to be able to travel through to the human world in order to capture and return any ghosts that go rouge and attempt to cause damage to your world." Danny said. "Ghosts in your world would be expected to follow a code of conduct, and if they broke that code, my police force would track them down and return them to the Ghost Zone." Danny explained, but he trailed off when another man entered the room.

He didn't seem very special, perhaps one of the President's aides. His eyes widened when he saw Danny, and quickly bowed. "Forgive me for interrupting, but I have urgent news for the President."

"Now? I'm in the middle of an important..." The President trailed off when he saw the look of desperation in the aide's eyes. "Ah, forgive me, your Majesty, I need to see what's happening."

"Of course." Danny said, and settled back to relax.

The President stood up and moved to the other side of the room, whispering urgently to his aide. An average human would probably not be able to make out more than every other word of their conversation, but Danny could hear them perfectly, and the news was something that made his stomach drop.

Apparently there was a space shuttle currently on a mission in earth orbit that had been caught in a micro-meteorite shower. According to the aide, many of the shuttle's systems had been ruined in the shower, including the oxygen tanks.

"We still have contact, but the mission is lost." The aide told the President. "They have no way back and we do not have the ability to rescue them."

"Damn." The President swore.

Danny, of course, felt sick when he heard. He could still remember his childhood dreams of being an astronaut, and brought back all the feelings of nausea he had when he had heard of the Columbia disaster.

He quickly called out for a specific ghost with his telepathy, almost certain that he would be somewhere near by.

Thanatos appeared before him, still completely invisible to human eyes, but Danny could see him standing there. _"Thanatos, are the astronauts on board that space shuttle fated to die today, or can they be saved?"_

" _No. They are not fated to die."_ Thanatos replied. _"But you must hurry."_ And with that Thanatos faded into complete invisibility to resume his work.

"Mr. President, allow me to help." Danny said, standing up and moving over towards where the President and his aide were talking.

"No, I can't ask you to..." The President began, and Danny cut him off.

"In life, I wanted to be an astronaut. I can't sit by idly and allow humans who are my heroes to be killed. You don't have to worry about me at all. I can exist just fine in space, and I swear I'll bring them back safely."

"Your Majesty..." The aide gasped in shock.

"Where is the shuttle located?" Danny asked the aide. "Can you give me a general location?"

The aide nodded mutely, and then told Danny the altitude of the shuttle and which country it was last over. "I'll be back." Danny said, and opened a portal to the Ghost Zone.

Once in the Ghost Zone, Danny quickly opened another portal in the area that the aide told him. He flew out into space, shutting down his humanity in order to spare himself the pain of trying to inhale a vacuum. Of course, with how fast things moved through space, the shuttle was not where the aide said it was, but that was okay because Danny could see the shuttle drifting through space.

As he flew closer, he could see that the main oxygen tank was leaking, spraying the important gas into space. Judging from the size of the holes in the tank, the shuttle had been hit with something bigger than micrometeorites.

It was a problem very similar to what happened to the Apollo 13 astronauts, except worse. The astronauts of Apollo 13 had survived thanks to the lunar module they'd had on board, which acted as a make-shift life-support. The space shuttle might have a satellite in its payload, but nothing that could act as life-support. And judging by how quickly oxygen was leaking out of the tank, they probably had less than fifteen minutes of air left. Nowhere near enough time to make it back to earth for an emergency landing.

Danny quickly phased into the shuttle, still not taking a breath. After all, the astronauts needed the oxygen more than he did. As soon as he was inside, he caught the tail-end of a conversation that the astronauts were having with mission control. "...just got word from the White House that there may be a possible rescue attempt."

"Forgive me, Houston, but that seems highly unlikely unless the Russians are launching today and feeling charitable enough to help us." One of the astronauts responded over the radio.

"I have come to help you." Danny said, keeping some distance between himself and the crew, just in case. There was no way to predict how anyone would react to his presence.

The astronauts turned around in shock, staring at the man who, as far as they could tell, had suddenly appeared on their shuttle literally from nowhere. "Where did you come from?" One of the crew demanded. Danny could tell just from looking at his uniform that he was the mission commander.

"My name is Danny Phantom. I know this might be hard to believe, especially if you've been here for more than a few weeks, but I'm a ghost. The king of ghosts, actually."

Judging from their expressions they had heard of him. "I have heard of you." The commander said. "But what are you doing here?"

"I was in my meeting with President Hartman when I heard what was happening up here." Danny answered. "So I have come to help you get safely back to earth."

"How?" The commander asked after several moments of silence.

"I have the ability to open portals that lead to anywhere I want." Danny answered. "But before I take you home, are you still carrying your payload?"

The commander nodded after a brief moment. "We were going to launch a new telescope. But it looks like we'll have to abandon it along with the rest of the shuttle."

"That's not a problem. I'll get the telescope next." Danny said. "Is there anything else?"

"You're going to recover the telescope?" The commander asked in shock. "But that's not possible! The telescope weighs ten tons! The moment you'd bring it out of a weightless environment, you'd be crushed."

"Ten tons? Don't worry, I'll handle it. Is there anything else that you need from the shuttle?" Danny asked.

Danny waited five minutes while the crew rushed around and grabbed as much as they could from the shuttle. Science experiments and test results. And then they gathered back around Phantom. Danny had the three-man crew grab onto each other, and he took hold of the commander. He transferred flight over to them, but it was not noticeable in the low-gravity environment. Danny flew into the portal with the astronauts. They were in the Ghost Zone for less than a second, giving the humans almost no time to look around before they were through another portal and they found themselves in the main control room of the Kennedy Space Center.

The astronauts gazed around in shock, having accepted their deaths but now knowing that they would live. They were safe and back on earth, just as Phantom promised. "Thank you, King Phantom. You've saved our lives." The commander said earnestly.

"It was literally not a problem." Danny replied, and he had to stop himself from being the NASA fan he was when the mission commander shook his hand and then saluted him. As hard as it was, it probably wouldn't be appropriate for a king to squeal like a fanboy. But it was still something that Danny knew he'd be bragging about with his friends tonight. "Now for the satellite..." Danny said, going back through the two portals and back into the shuttle.

Danny followed his memory of the space shuttle layout until he came to the cargo hold. The telescope took up the whole space. If it weighed ten tons, it would be a little smaller than the Hubble telescope, but it was still just as massive as any other space-based telescope. There was no way it could be moved on human power alone, even in low gravity. But Danny had the advantage of being stronger than any human.

He turned the telescope intangible and carefully moved it outside of the space shuttle. If he knew less about NASA, he probably would have just let the telescope go and left it where it was. But there was no way he was going to leave the telescope in the same orbit as the debris from the space shuttle, and with the known hazard of micro-meteorites. If the telescope were not placed in the exact right position or altitude, it would be destroyed.

Better to leave this to the professionals. So he opened up a new portal, one that was much bigger than before to allow him to carry the telescope through. He passed through the Ghost Zone and the portal to the human world opened up in a new location, the Goddard Space Flight Center. Odds were the telescope was built by the scientists at Goddard, and even if it was not built by them, they probably had some hand in the mission.

Danny turned out to be correct, the scientists at Goddard recognized their telescope immediately, and everyone stared in shock at the sight of Danny carrying the ten ton machine like it was nothing. Very carefully, he set it down in the cradle that the scientists pointed him towards.

"Good luck getting this telescope up there." Danny said, before he used another set of portals to return to the White House. President Hartman was standing by the window, wringing his hands. "Your astronauts are safe, as well as the telescope they were supposed to be putting up." Danny told him.

"Thank God." President Hartman sighed. "I can't thank you enough for saving those human lives. Though, for the life of me, I can't imagine why."

"Why I would save them?" Danny asked.

"Exactly. You are the king of ghosts. More dead humans would make you more powerful."

"Not all humans become ghosts and I don't take pleasure in the thought of humans dying and becoming my subjects." Danny responded. "Besides, I don't have to kill humans to get subjects. Ghosts will come to me eventually without any outside help."

"I suppose that's true." The President said. President Hartman reached out his hand. "I don't know how much this will mean, but you've got me on your side at least. I wish you luck with whoever holds the Oval Office after me." Danny smiled as he returned the President's handshake.

* * *

 **END OF PART TWO**

 **LES: Happy Danniversary, even though I am one day late. I thought it was April 4th, until I checked on Wikipedia today. Sorry… Anyway, I wanted Danny to do some hero work in this chapter to get the current president on his side. Danny's a space geek, and I'm a space geek, so I couldn't resist a space disaster. (Waves a "I Heart NASA" flag).**


	18. Samael's Special Ability

**LES: My opinion is that ghost children grow up faster than human children. After all, it's pretty much all based on how quickly one can absorb ectoplasm until they are at full power. So my idea is that Samael will grow about about the rate of one year per month. This particular chapter will take place about four months after the last chapter, so Samael is physically five, or close to it.**

 **Chapter XVIII: Samael's Special Ability**

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 _On second thought…_ Tucker thought to himself as he searched around Phantom's Keep, _Maybe playing Hide and Seek with a young ghost was not the best idea._

Even though Samael was technically only four months old, as a ghost he was growing at a much faster rate than any human. Like every ghost, he would reach full maturity at two years of age, so he had a lot of growing to do in those two years. Right now, Samael was physically about five years old, and growing more every single day.

At this time, Samael only seemed to exhibit a few of the basic ghostly abilities, which was not a shock to anymore. He was constantly going invisible in an attempt to get away from his parents or whoever was looking after him at any given moment (Tucker at the moment). He was learning how to fly, but was still no where near mastering it, as he was still prone to crash landings.

Which was why Tucker suddenly realized that Hide and Seek was probably not a good idea. Taking your eyes off the young prince for more than a few minutes always seemed to lead with him getting into trouble, and with his invisibility Samael could hide from him in plain sight.

"Samael? Where are you?" Tucker asked, playfully, turning the corner. Of course, the young prince was not there.

At least not in eyesight, because the next moment, Tucker felt the young ghost grab him and nearly knock him to the ground. Young Samael shifted back into visibility, smiling happily. "I got ya Uncle Tuck!" He said with a grin.

"So you did, so you did." Tucker sighed. "But we've talked about this, Samael. Going invisible during hide and seek is cheating."

"No, it's not." Samael said firmly. "Everyone says I'm the prince, so I make up the rules."

Tucker sighed. Really, who could not expect a child to not take advantage of being royalty? Samael was still much too young to understand the work that would come with being the prince. Right now, it was all just perks.

Well, perhaps not all perks. Danny and Sam spent as much time with their son as they could, but it was never long enough. With the tentative beginnings of a diplomatic relationship between ghosts and humans being worked on, they rarely had time to spend with their son. Hence, Tucker babysitting at the moment.

"Okay, so why don't we do something different?" Tucker asked.

"Like what?" Samael asked curiously.

"Well, it looks like you've mastered going invisible, but have you worked on your intangibility at all?" Tucker asked.

"But, Uncle Tuck, ghosts can't walk through walls here." Samael said, confused.

"But it's still something you need to master." Tucker said. "Here, I'll help you." Tucker took the young ghost's hand in his own, holding on firmly. Not firmly enough to hurt the young boy, but firmly enough that he couldn't simply wiggle out of his grasp. "Try to phase your hand out of mine. Remember what your daddy taught you. Wish for your hand to slip through mine."

Of course, intangibility was a lot more complicated than that. What was really happening was a shift to another dimension. The way Thanatos explained it, the ghost really allowed itself to move half a step into another dimension, which allowed the ghost to slip through objects on its current plane of existence. Most ghosts could only take that half-step into the Ghost Zone, which made it impossible for the average ghost to phase through Ghost Zone material. Some ghosts could make the half-step both ways, shifting into the human world while in the Ghost Zone and allowing them to phase through objects in the Ghost Zone which normally could not be phased through.

Thanatos himself had one of the most powerful phasing ability in the entire Ghost Zone. Instead of half-a-step, he could take a full step into either dimension. This meant he could phase through any sort of conceivable barrier, human or ghostly. Even ghost shields were no match for him. But that made sense. Imagine if the specter of death could be warded off with a simple ghost shield!

Samael stuck his tongue out in concentration as he pulled against Tucker's hand, but the boy remained firmly solid. After several minutes of struggle, the boy gave up. "It's not working, Uncle Tucker."

"Well, I suppose it's possible that you just can't phase through anything in the Ghost Zone." Tucker commented.

"That's highly unlikely." Tucker glanced up and saw it was the master of intangibility himself, Thanatos. "As a young spirit, Prince Samael should be more than powerful enough to shift either way. He's possibly just a late-bloomer."

Tucker had to admit that Thanatos had a point. Even immediately after becoming ghosts, both Danny and Sam never had any issue with becoming invisible or intangible. For Danny, specifically, the issue had been more in learning how to turn off his powers rather than getting those basic ghost powers working in the first place. "Do you think you can help? Maybe give him some pointers?" Tucker asked.

"Certainly." Thanatos took off his hood to reveal his true face and knelt down next to the young prince. "Maybe you just need to get the feel for intangibility?" Thanatos offered his hand for the young prince. Samael took his hand, and the elder spirit gave his intangibility to the young boy. Samael gasped as the tingly sensation spread over his body as completed the phase that would allow him to pass through Ghost Zone material without a problem. Thanatos let go of the prince's hand, and the intangibility faded away. "That's what it feels like when you shift." Thanatos said. "I took you a little way into the human world, try to remember and copy the feeling."

"Okay. I'll try." Samael screwed up his face in concentration. Both Tucker and Thanatos watched for any sort of change. After several minutes, Samael's form began to flicker in and out, before disappearing entirely.

"Little man, that's your invisibility again." Tucker said. "We wanted intangible this time." However, there was no answer. Tucker and Thanatos exchanged a glance with each other. "Samael?" Tucker asked again, getting a little worried. He turned to Thanatos again. "Can you sense him?" He asked.

Thanatos blinked. "No."

"No? What does that mean?" Tucker gasped.

"It means he is no longer in this dimension. Nor is he in the human realm." Thanatos explained. "He's not in any dimension that I know of..."

Before Tucker could really begin to panic, Samael returned back to existence, but something was wrong. The young boy was in tears, crying out in fear.

"What is wrong?" Thanatos asked, shocked, and knelling down next to the young Prince.

"I hate that power!" Samael cried. "It was scary and I don't like it! Don't make me do it again!"

"What do you mean intangibility is scary?" Tucker asked, confused. He'd met a lot of ghosts before, but he'd never met no that was scared of such a basic ghost power. "Is it scary?" Tucker asked, turning to Thanatos.

"Basic phasing?" Thanatos clarified. "No, not at all. But we have to consider what we've just seen. He obviously traveled to another dimension, but it was not any of the normal dimensions that ghosts normally employ to phase. Samael?" Thanatos knelt back down to the boy's eye level. "I know that you're scared, but I need you to phase one last time for me."

"But I don't wanna!" Samael cried.

"I know, but this time I'm going with you. I'll protect you, my Prince, I promise." Thanatos said, wrapping the boy up in the cloth of his cloak, which would give the boy his nearly impenetrable protection. "Nothing can hurt you while I'm around."

"You really mean it, Uncle Thannie?" Samael asked.

"Of course. Give me your intangibility just like I gave you mine."

"Can I close my eyes?" Samael asked, his voice shaking.

"Of course." Thanatos said. _Spirits, just where had this boy been?_ He wondered to himself.

"Okay, I'll try." Samael closed his eyes tightly and Thanatos waited for the boy to take them to whichever dimension he'd ended up in. It took another couple of minutes, but then Thanatos felt the familiar feeling of shifting out of the dimension of the Ghost Zone and into another dimension. All of the ghosts that could shift out of the Ghost Zone like this chose to make the step towards the human world, but Thanatos knew right away that they were not heading towards the human world. Instead, they had shifted sideways into another dimension that Thanatos recognized on sight.

He found himself looking to the pitch blackness of the Unworld.

Thanatos stared around in shock, even he could feel the effect that the Unworld would have on his human soul, the fear and utter despair nearly chocked him. No wonder Samael had been terrified. But how could they be in the Unworld, and how could Samael have gotten out in the first place? It was common knowledge that those stuck in the Unworld were trapped forever.

Then Thanatos realized that they were not really in the Unworld. Samael had just taken an extra step out of his dimension: the second step out of sync with his own dimension. That meant…

Well, honestly, to Thanatos that just meant that Samael be able to match his own ability to phase through anything. But the price seemed too great. What was the point of the second step? The same exact thing could be accomplished with just a single step like Thanatos. He personally wouldn't blame Samael for never wanting to use his phasing ability again.

Thanatos was relieved when he felt them get drawn back to the Ghost Zone. Tucker was waiting for them with wide eyes, and Thanatos could feel his own expression twisted with shock and fear. "Thanatos? What did you see?" Tucker asked.

"I saw it, but I can't believe it." Thanatos said, looking down at the young prince with pity. What an awful ability… "We need to talk to the King and Clockwork right away." Thanatos said. He took the young prince in his arms and rushed off, without even waiting for Tucker to catch up.

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Both Danny and Clockwork stared at Thanatos in shock as he explained what he'd seen when Samael had transferred over his intangibility. "I've never seen anything like this before." Thanatos finished. "He may be the first ghost in all of existence to have this ability, but for the life of me I can't imagine how it's of any use. The sheer terror that exudes from the Unworld far outweighs any benefit, especially for a young child."

Danny turned his attention on Clockwork. "Clockwork, have you ever heard of an ability like this before?"

"I must say I have not." Clockwork replied. "There are ghosts whose special ability manifests within the so-called basic ghost powers. But every ghost I know of whose ability relates to their intangibility has their power similar to Thanatos. Samael's ability, should he be able to overcome the fear, will be uniquely powerful. Much more powerful than Thanatos even."

Thanatos glanced at Clockwork, confused. "I don't understand. I can phase through anything, even ghost shields. You can't get any better than being able to phase through anything. It seems like he could accomplish just as much if his ability stayed at my level instead of going to this useless level."

"Clockwork." Danny said, standing up. He held his arms open and Samael took the invitation and flew into his father's arms. "We both know that the Unworld is something that we don't want to toy with. The fact that when my son goes intangible he gets taken to the edge of the void is very disturbing. Is this ability a danger to my son?"

Clockwork considered carefully for a few moments. "For the moment, there is no danger." He finally said. "However, as he grows even more powerful, this ability will grow in power as well. There may come a time when Prince Samael is powerful enough to pierce the veil to the Unworld. If that happens, there is no guarantee that he will be able to return."

"Then what do you suggest?" Danny asked.

"Daddy?" Samael spoke quietly. "I don't ever want to see that awful place again."

"I know, I know." Danny said, totally understanding his son's fear. He remembered when he had looked into the void, just before he'd become the King and set the Ghost Zone right. Even then, he'd just been looking into the void. He had not felt the fear and despair the Unworld could put in hearts.

"As terrible as it sounds, I would suggest training him in the use of this ability." Clockwork suggested. "Knowing one's limits are the best protection from costly mistakes down the line. Not to mention I have a feeling that the strength of his gift will be useful."

"I still don't understand why you'd call this a gift." Thanatos commented. "Seems more like a curse to me."

"Believe me, Thanatos, I hope that you'll never know." Clockwork said cryptically. The two halfas were more than used to Clockwork's way of avoiding spoilers for potential futures.

Clockwork would not say anything further, but Thanatos could not help but become worried about a future where he might come up against some unknown force that could even stop death itself in its tracks. But that couldn't be possible… right?

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 **LES: This chapter is a little weird, because I have been separating the different acts out by time skips, but if I stuck to that, this chapter would be its own act. Yes, we're doing another time skip right after this chapter, up to ten months. So two months away from election time. I just needed this stand-alone chapter to set up Samael's ability to super-phase.**

 **Just in case it wasn't clear, here's my thoughts on how phasing works. The DP world is made up of three known dimensions: the human world, the Ghost Zone, and the Unworld. The human world is the highest dimension, with the Ghost Zone under that and the Unworld under that. The basic act of phasing only works in the human world, because a ghost in the human world shifts slightly back into the Ghost Zone, allowing them to pass through objects in the human world like it wasn't there. That is why the average ghost can't phase in the Ghost Zone, because they are all ready in the Ghost Zone.**

 **Exceptional phasers, like Thanatos, can do this both ways. In the human world, they shift towards the Ghost Zone, and in the Ghost Zone they shift towards the human world. So Thanatos can phase through Ghost Zone material. Thanatos himself is unique within this group because he is able to sink deeper into intangibility than other ghosts, allowing him to phase through anti-ghost materials like ghost shields.  
**

 **Samael's ability to super-phase is completely unknown to anyone except for Clockwork looking into the future, so you'll just have to wait and see the implications of his ability.**


End file.
